TY - JOUR
T1 - A Developmental Twin Study of Emotion Recognition and Its Negative Affective Clinical Correlates
AU - Rappaport, Lance M.
AU - Carney, Dever M.
AU - Verhulst, Brad
AU - Neale, Michael C.
AU - Blair, James
AU - Brotman, Melissa A.
AU - Pine, Daniel S.
AU - Leibenluft, Ellen
AU - Hettema, John M.
AU - Roberson-Nay, Roxann
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH098055 to Dr. Hettema, R01MH101518 to Dr. Roberson-Nay, NIMH-IRPziamh002781 to Dr. Pine, and T32MH020030) and the National Center for Research Resources (UL1TR000058).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
PY - 2018/12
Y1 - 2018/12
N2 - Objective: Youth with psychiatric disorders distinguished by irritability, including depression and associated trait neuroticism, show deficits in the ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion, particularly happiness. However, the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to this ability remains unknown. The present study examined this trait in twins to assess the genetic and environmental influences on face-emotion recognition abilities and their association with irritability, neuroticism, and depression. Method: Child and adolescent twins (N = 957 from 496 families) 9 to 17 years old rated their irritability (on the Affective Reactivity Index), neuroticism (on the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire), and depression (on the Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire) and completed a face-emotion labeling task. Faces depicting anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise were morphed with a neutral face, yielding 10 levels of increasing emotional expressivity. Biometrical twin analyses evaluated contributions of genetic and environmental factors to the etiology of face-emotion recognition and its association with irritability, neuroticism, and depression. Results: Recognition of each emotion was heritable; common and specific sets of genetic factors influenced all emotions and individual emotions, respectively. Irritability, neuroticism, and depression were modestly and negatively correlated with emotion recognition, particularly the recognition of happiness. For irritability and neuroticism, this correlation appeared largely due to genetic factors. Conclusion: This study maps genetic and environmental contributions to face-emotion recognition and its association with irritability, neuroticism, and depression. Findings implicate common genetic factors in deficits regarding the recognition of happiness associated with irritability and neuroticism in childhood and adolescence.
AB - Objective: Youth with psychiatric disorders distinguished by irritability, including depression and associated trait neuroticism, show deficits in the ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion, particularly happiness. However, the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to this ability remains unknown. The present study examined this trait in twins to assess the genetic and environmental influences on face-emotion recognition abilities and their association with irritability, neuroticism, and depression. Method: Child and adolescent twins (N = 957 from 496 families) 9 to 17 years old rated their irritability (on the Affective Reactivity Index), neuroticism (on the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire), and depression (on the Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire) and completed a face-emotion labeling task. Faces depicting anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise were morphed with a neutral face, yielding 10 levels of increasing emotional expressivity. Biometrical twin analyses evaluated contributions of genetic and environmental factors to the etiology of face-emotion recognition and its association with irritability, neuroticism, and depression. Results: Recognition of each emotion was heritable; common and specific sets of genetic factors influenced all emotions and individual emotions, respectively. Irritability, neuroticism, and depression were modestly and negatively correlated with emotion recognition, particularly the recognition of happiness. For irritability and neuroticism, this correlation appeared largely due to genetic factors. Conclusion: This study maps genetic and environmental contributions to face-emotion recognition and its association with irritability, neuroticism, and depression. Findings implicate common genetic factors in deficits regarding the recognition of happiness associated with irritability and neuroticism in childhood and adolescence.
KW - face-emotion recognition
KW - genetics
KW - irritability
KW - twin
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jaac.2018.05.028
DO - 10.1016/j.jaac.2018.05.028
M3 - Article
C2 - 30522738
AN - SCOPUS:85057844261
SN - 0890-8567
VL - 57
SP - 925-933.e3
JO - Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
JF - Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
IS - 12
ER -