• So subtle, yet so important!

      So subtle, yet so important!

    • TSA, FBI & Military -Evaluating Truthfulness and Detecting Deception

      Emotions are an incredibly important aspect of human life and the extended research on facial expressions and emotion of the past few decades has produced several discoveries that have led to important real world applications.

      Lie to me

      For example, ever since the attacks of September 11th, 2001, and as a result of increased terrorist activity, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. military and many others have become increasingly interested in the science of deception detection. Due to an increased understanding of emotion and what happens if we fake emotional expressions, their focus has become the face.

      Because of the subtlety of micro-expressions, airline security officials in the United States have implemented specific training programs to increase their staffs ability to identify potential threats by catching these fleeting expressions. Training to zoom in on the face and read between the lines may make officers, whether of the TSA, FBI or military, faster, more efficient and accurate.

      TSA, FBI & Military -Evaluating Truthfulness and Detecting Deception

      Emotions are an incredibly important aspect of human life and the extended research on facial expressions and emotion of the past few decades has produced several discoveries that have led to important real world applications.

      Lie to me

      For example, ever since the attacks of September 11th, 2001, and as a result of increased terrorist activity, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. military and many others have become increasingly interested in the science of deception detection. Due to an increased understanding of emotion and what happens if we fake emotional expressions, their focus has become the face.

      Because of the subtlety of micro-expressions, airline security officials in the United States have implemented specific training programs to increase their staffs ability to identify potential threats by catching these fleeting expressions. Training to zoom in on the face and read between the lines may make officers, whether of the TSA, FBI or military, faster, more efficient and accurate.

    • Facial Expressions and Bipolar Disorder

      Our ability to recognize facial expressions and understand facial emotion is a fundamental skill, that is necessary for effective interpersonal interaction and communication. People with certain psychological disorders lack this ability/ have deficits in understanding this type of non-verbal communication, which can have detrimental effects on their social functioning. Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, and Autism, amongst others, may cause deficits in appropriate facial recognition and emotion processing ability.

      A study by Derntl, Seidel, Kryspin-Exner, Hasmann and Dobmeier (2009) presented 62 patients diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder ( 26 met DSM-IV criteria for BP I, 36 for BP II) with 36 colored photographs of facial expressions of five basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness and sadness), and with neutral expressions. In the first task, participants were asked to recognize the emotion expressed as fast and as accurately as possible, using a forced choice answering format. In the second task, the images with neutral expressions were used to test short-term recognition memory. Participants were asked to indicate whether or not they had seen the person in the previous task.

      Bipolar Patient

      As expected, results indicated that healthy controls performed best, with females outperforming males. Additionally, reduced emotion recognition performance was found in BP I but not BP II. Facial memory remained unaffected in the complete patient sample, with no differences between BP I and BP II.

      Taking previous studies into account, Derntl et al. concluded that recurrent manic symptoms (as found in BP I) impair patients' performance on cognitive and affective tasks more than do depressive symptoms (as a main symptom of BP II).

      Furthermore, since no difficulties in face recognition were found, the observed emotion recognition deficit of patients with BP I may be due to dysfunctional processing of emotions rather than facial processing difficulties (Derntl, Seidel, Kryspin-Exner, Hasmann & Dobmeier, 2009).

      The finding that patients with BP I may have difficulties interpreting and understanding emotions in facial expressions may be of profound clinical relevance, and should be considered in a targeted and differential treatment approach to Bipolar Disorder.

      Facial Expressions and Bipolar Disorder

      Our ability to recognize facial expressions and understand facial emotion is a fundamental skill, that is necessary for effective interpersonal interaction and communication. People with certain psychological disorders lack this ability/ have deficits in understanding this type of non-verbal communication, which can have detrimental effects on their social functioning. Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, and Autism, amongst others, may cause deficits in appropriate facial recognition and emotion processing ability.

      A study by Derntl, Seidel, Kryspin-Exner, Hasmann and Dobmeier (2009) presented 62 patients diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder ( 26 met DSM-IV criteria for BP I, 36 for BP II) with 36 colored photographs of facial expressions of five basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness and sadness), and with neutral expressions. In the first task, participants were asked to recognize the emotion expressed as fast and as accurately as possible, using a forced choice answering format. In the second task, the images with neutral expressions were used to test short-term recognition memory. Participants were asked to indicate whether or not they had seen the person in the previous task.

      Bipolar Patient

      As expected, results indicated that healthy controls performed best, with females outperforming males. Additionally, reduced emotion recognition performance was found in BP I but not BP II. Facial memory remained unaffected in the complete patient sample, with no differences between BP I and BP II.

      Taking previous studies into account, Derntl et al. concluded that recurrent manic symptoms (as found in BP I) impair patients' performance on cognitive and affective tasks more than do depressive symptoms (as a main symptom of BP II).

      Furthermore, since no difficulties in face recognition were found, the observed emotion recognition deficit of patients with BP I may be due to dysfunctional processing of emotions rather than facial processing difficulties (Derntl, Seidel, Kryspin-Exner, Hasmann & Dobmeier, 2009).

      The finding that patients with BP I may have difficulties interpreting and understanding emotions in facial expressions may be of profound clinical relevance, and should be considered in a targeted and differential treatment approach to Bipolar Disorder.