Facial emotion recognition in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder and their unaffected first-degree relatives

Facial emotion recognition (FER) is an important task associated with social cognition because facial expression is a significant source of non-verbal information that guides interpersonal relationships. Increasing evidence suggest that bipolar disorder (BD) patients present deficits in FER and these deficits may be present in individuals at high genetic risk for BD. The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of FER deficits in euthymic BD patients, their first-degree relatives, and healthy controls (HC) and to consider if these deficits might be regarded as an endophenotype candidate for BD.

Source: Comprehensive Psychiatry - March 10, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Francy de Brito Fereira Fernandes, Alexandre Duarte Gigante, Mariangeles Berutti, José Antônio Amaral, Karla Mathias de Almeida, Cristiana Castanho de Almeida Rocca, Beny Lafer, Fabiano Gonçalves Nery Source Type: research