Emotion recognition in depression: An investigation of performance and response confidence in adult female patients with depression.
Abnormalities in emotion recognition are frequently reported in depression. However, emotion recognition is not compromised in some studies, and confidence judgments, which are essential for social interaction, have not been considered to date. Due to the high prevalence rate of depression in women, and sex differences in emotion recognition, the aim of the present study was to investigate emotion recognition and confidence judgments in women with depression. A sample of female patients with depressive disorders (n=45) was compared with female healthy controls (n=30) in their ability to correctly identify facial emotion expressions along with confidence judgments. Groups performed similarly on emotional face recognition and showed no difference regarding confidence ratings. A negative correlation between self-assessed depression and response confidence was found. While some limitations of the study must be taken in consideration (e.g., small number of items per emotion category, low severity of depression), abnormalities in emotion recognition do not seem to be a major feature of depression. As self-assessed depression is accompanied by low response confidence for emotional faces, it is crucial to further examine the role of confidence judgments in emotion recognition, as underconfidence may foster interpersonal insecurity in depression.
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Martinistraße 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany. Electronic address: m.fieker@uke.de.
Martina
M
Fieker
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Martinistraße 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany.
Steffen
S
Moritz
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Martinistraße 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany.
Ulf
U
Köther
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Martinistraße 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany.
Lena
L
Jelinek
D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D019263:Dysthymic Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D000066499:Facial Recognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007600:Judgment; D008875:Middle Aged; D012938:Social Perception
Cognitive bias; Depression; Emotion; Facial emotional expressions