Psychological distress and attentional bias toward acne lesions in patients with acne.
Acne vulgaris is a common inflammatory disease that manifests on the face and affects appearance. In general, facial acne has a wide-ranging negative impact on the psychosocial functioning of acne sufferers and leaves physical and emotional scars. In the present study, we investigated whether patients with acne vulgaris demonstrate enhanced psychological bias when assessing the attractiveness of faces with acne symptoms and whether they devote greater selective attention to acne lesions than to acne-free (control) individuals. Participants viewed images of faces under two different skin (acne vs. acne-free) and emotional facial expression (happy and neutral) conditions. They rated the attractiveness of the faces, and the time spent fixating on the acne lesions was recorded with an eye tracker. We found that the gap in perceived attractiveness between acne and acne-free faces was greater for acne sufferers. Furthermore, patients with acne fixated longer on facial regions exhibiting acne lesions than did control participants irrespective of the facial expression depicted. In summary, patients with acne have a stronger attentional bias for acne lesions and focus more on the skin lesions than do those without acne. Clinicians treating the skin problems of patients with acne should consider these psychological and emotional scars.
a Acupuncture and Meridian Science Research Center , College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University , Seoul , Korea.
In-Seon
IS
Lee
Ah-Rhem
AR
Lee
Hyejung
H
Lee
Hi-Joon
HJ
Park
Sun-Yong
SY
Chung
Christian
C
Wallraven
Isabelle
I
Bülthoff
Younbyoung
Y
Chae
D000152:Acne Vulgaris / Q000523:psychology*; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012938:Social Perception; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
acne vulgaris; attractiveness; eye movement; face; selective attention