The effect of age on emotion processing in individuals with mood disorders and in healthy individuals

Type of content
Journal Article
Thesis discipline
Degree name
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
eng
Date
2024
Authors
Gray , Vanessa
Moot , William
Frampton , Christopher M. A.
Douglas , Katie M.
Gallagher , Peter
Jordan , Jennifer
Carter, Janet
Inder , Maree
Crowe , Marie
McIntosh, Virginia
Abstract

Introduction: Emotion processing is an essential part of interpersonal relationships and social interactions. Changes in emotion processing have been found in both mood disorders and in aging, however, the interaction between such factors has yet to be examined in detail. This is of interest due to the contrary nature of the changes observed in existing research - a negativity bias in mood disorders versus a positivity effect with aging. It is also unclear how changes in non-emotional cognitive function with aging and in mood disorders, interact with these biases. Methods and results: In individuals with mood disorders and in healthy control participants, we examined emotional processing and its relationship to age in detail. Data sets from two studies examining facial expression recognition were pooled. In one study, 98 currently depressed individuals (either unipolar or bipolar) were compared with 61 healthy control participants, and in the other, 100 people with bipolar disorder (in various mood states) were tested on the same facial expression recognition task. Repeated measures analysis of variance was used to examine the effects of age and mood disorder diagnosis alongside interactions between individual emotion, age, and mood disorder diagnosis. A positivity effect was associated with increasing age which was evident irrespective of the presence of mood disorder or current mood episode. Discussion: Results suggest a positivity effect occurring at a relatively early age but with no evidence of a bias toward negative emotions in mood disorder or specifically, in depressed episodes. The positivity effect in emotional processing in aging appears to occur even within people with mood disorders. Further research is needed to understand how this fits with negative biases seen in previous studies in mood disorders.

Description
Citation
Gray V, Moot W, Frampton CMA, Douglas KM, Gallagher P, Jordan J, Carter JD, Inder M, Crowe M, McIntosh VVW, Porter RJ (2024). The effect of age on emotion processing in individuals with mood disorders and in healthy individuals. Frontiers in Psychology. 15. 1204204-.
Keywords
aging, depression, emotion processing, facial recognition, mood disorders
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
52 - Psychology::5204 - Cognitive and computational psychology::520403 - Learning, motivation and emotion
52 - Psychology::5204 - Cognitive and computational psychology::520499 - Cognitive and computational psychology not elsewhere classified
Rights
© 2024 Gray, Moot, Frampton, Douglas, Gallagher, Jordan, Carter, Inder, Crowe, McIntosh and Porter. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.