title: Electrophysiologic evidence for multilevel deficits in emotional face processing in patients with bulimia nervosa.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Empirical evidence suggests substantial deficits regarding emotion recognition in bulimia nervosa (BN). The aim of the current study was to investigate electrophysiologic evidence for deficits in emotional face processing in patients with BN.
  
  
  METHODS
  Event-related potentials were recorded from 13 women with BN and 13 matched healthy controls while viewing neutral, happy, fearful, and angry facial expressions. Participants' recognition performance for emotional faces was tested in a subsequent categorization task. In addition, the degree of alexithymia, depression, and anxiety were assessed via questionnaires.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Categorization of emotional faces was hampered in BN (p = .01). Amplitudes of event-related potentials differed during emotional face processing: face-specific N170 amplitudes were less pronounced for angry faces in patients with BN (mean [M] [standard deviation {SD}] = 1.46 [0.56] µV versus M [SD] = -1.23 [0.61] µV, p = .02). In contrast, P3 amplitudes were more pronounced in patients with BN as compared with controls (M [SD] = 2.64 [0.46] µV versus M [SD] = 1.25 [0.39] µV, p = .04), independent of emotional expression.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study provides novel electrophysiologic data showing that emotional faces are processed differently in patients with BN as compared with healthy controls. We suggest that deficits in early automatic emotion classification in BN are followed by an increased allocation of attentional resources to compensate for those deficits. These findings might contribute to a better understanding of the impaired social functioning in BN.
authors: Department of Psychology, Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany.
authors: Nicole
authors: N
authors: Kühnpast
authors: Klaus
authors: K
authors: Gramann
authors: Olga
authors: O
authors: Pollatos
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004644:Emotions; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual