title: Confidence in facial emotion recognition in borderline personality disorder.
abstract: Dysfunctions of social-cognitive processes such as the recognition of emotions have been discussed to contribute to the severe impairments of interpersonal functioning in borderline personality disorder (BPD). By investigating how patients with BPD experience the intensity of different emotions in a facial expression and how confident they are in their own judgments, the current study aimed at identifying subtle alterations of emotion processing in BPD. Female patients with BPD (N = 36) and 36 healthy controls were presented with faces that displayed low-intense anger and happiness or ambiguous expressions of anger and happiness blends. Subjects were asked to rate (a) the intensity of anger and happiness in each facial expression and (b) their confidence in their judgments. Patients with BPD rated the intensity of happiness in happy faces lower than did controls, but did not differ in regard to the assessment of angry or ambiguous facial stimuli or the rating of anger. They reported lower confidence in their judgments, which was particularly pronounced for the assessment of happy facial expressions. The reduced rating of happiness was linked to higher state anger, whereas the reduced confidence in the assessment of happy faces was related to stronger feelings of loneliness and the expectation of social rejection. Our findings suggest alterations in the processing of positive social stimuli that affect both the experience of the emotional intensity and the confidence subjects experience during their assessment. The link to loneliness and social rejection sensitivity points to the necessity to target these alterations in psychotherapeutical interventions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg.
authors.forename: Janine
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thome
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liebke
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg.
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bungert
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schmahl
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Biological and Personality Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Freiburg.
authors.forename: Gregor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Domes
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bohus
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg.
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lis
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger / Q000502:physiology*; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D000066499:Facial Recognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D008132:Loneliness / Q000523:psychology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012938:Social Perception; D055815:Young Adult