Emotion recognition deficits in pediatric anxiety disorders: implications for amygdala research.
BACKGROUND
Anxiety disorders in adults involve aberrant processing of emotional information that is hypothesized to reflect perturbations in the amygdala. This study examines the relationship between face-emotion recognition and anxiety in a sample of children and adolescents participating in a brain-imaging study of amygdala structure and function.


METHODS
This study recruited 15 children and adolescents with ongoing anxiety disorders and 11 psychiatrically healthy comparisons group-matched on age, gender, and IQ. Face-emotion recognition was assessed using the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy Scale (DANVA).


RESULTS
Children and adolescents with anxiety disorders exhibited significantly poorer performance on the face-emotion recognition task compared to healthy controls (z = 2.2; p < 0.05). This difference was found only for expressions posed by adults but not children.


CONCLUSIONS
Reduced accuracy on a face-emotion recognition test is consistent with perturbed amygdala function in pediatric anxiety disorders.


CONCLUSIONS
As this study was conducted in a sample undergoing a neuroimaging investigation of amygdala integrity, future analyses will examine associations among amygdala function, clinical anxiety, and face-recognition abilities.
Easter
Josh
J
Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience, Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-2670, USA.
McClure
Erin B
EB
Monk
Christopher S
CS
Dhanani
Maya
M
Hodgdon
Hilary
H
Leibenluft
Ellen
E
Charney
Dennis S
DS
Pine
Daniel S
DS
Ernst
Monique
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000379:Agoraphobia / Q000523:psychology; D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011613:Psychotherapy; D012938:Social Perception