title: Facial perception bias in patients with major depression.
abstract: This study used a morphed categorical perception facial expression task to evaluate whether patients with depression demonstrated deficits in distinguishing boundaries between emotions. Forty-one patients with depression and 41 healthy controls took part in this study. They were administered a standardized set of morphed photographs of facial expressions with varying emotional intensities between 0% and 100% of the emotion, in 10% increments to provide a range of intensities from pleasant to unpleasant(e.g. happy to sad, happy to angry) and approach-avoidance (e.g. angry to fearful). Compared with healthy controls, the patients with depression demonstrated a rapid perception of sad expressions in happy-sad emotional continuum and demonstrated a rapid perception of angry expressions in angry-fearful emotional continuum. In addition, when facial expressions shifted from happy to angry, the depressed patients had a clear demarcation for the happy-angry continuum. Depressed patients had a perceptual bias towards unpleasant versus pleasant expressions and the hypersensitivity to angry facial signals might influence the interaction behaviors between depressed patients and others.
authors.affiliation: Guangzhou Medical College, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Wen-hua
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Ling-zhi
authors.initials: LZ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Qi-yong
authors.initials: QY
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.forename: Raymond C K
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Chan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D014796:Visual Perception