Borderline personality and the detection of angry faces

Background Many studies have assessed emotion recognition in patients with Borderline Personality Disorder and considerable evidence has been accumulated on patients’ ability to categorize emotions. In contrast, their ability to detect emotions has been investigated sparsely. The only two studies th...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hepp, Johanna (Author) , Schmahl, Christian (Author)
Format: Article (Journal)
Language:English
Published: March 31, 2016
In: PLOS ONE
Year: 2016, Volume: 11, Issue: 3
ISSN:1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0152947
Online Access:Verlag, Volltext: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152947
Verlag, Volltext: https://journals-plos-org.ezproxy.medma.uni-heidelberg.de/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0152947
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Author Notes:Johanna Hepp, Benjamin E. Hilbig, Pascal J. Kieslich, Julia Herzog, Stefanie Lis, Christian Schmahl, Inga Niedtfeld
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Summary:Background Many studies have assessed emotion recognition in patients with Borderline Personality Disorder and considerable evidence has been accumulated on patients’ ability to categorize emotions. In contrast, their ability to detect emotions has been investigated sparsely. The only two studies that assessed emotion detection abilities found contradictory evidence on patients’ ability to detect angry faces. Methods To clarify whether patients with Borderline Personality Disorder show enhanced detection of angry faces, we conducted three experiments: a laboratory study (n = 53) with a clinical sample and two highly powered web studies that measured Borderline features (n1 = 342, n2 = 220). Participants in all studies completed a visual search paradigm, and the reaction times for the detection of angry vs. happy faces were measured. Results Consistently, data spoke against enhanced detection of angry faces in the Borderline groups, indicated by non-significant group (Borderline vs. healthy control) × target (angry vs. happy) interactions, despite highly satisfactory statistical power to detect even small effects. Conclusions In contrast to emotion categorization, emotion detection appears to be intact in patients with Borderline Personality Disorder and individuals high in Borderline features. The importance of distinguishing between these two processes in future studies is discussed.
Item Description:Gesehen am 26.02.2019
Physical Description:Online Resource
ISSN:1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0152947