Dataset Information

Effects of age on the identification of emotions in facial expressions: a meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Emotion identification is a fundamental component of social cognition. Although it is well established that a general cognitive decline occurs with advancing age, the effects of age on emotion identification is still unclear. A meta-analysis by Ruffman and colleagues (2008) explored this issue, but much research has been published since then, reporting inconsistent findings.

Methods

To examine age differences in the identification of facial expressions of emotion, we conducted a meta-analysis of 24 empirical studies (N = 1,033 older adults, N = 1,135 younger adults) published after 2008. Additionally, a meta-regression analysis was conducted to identify potential moderators.

Results

Results show that older adults less accurately identify facial expressions of anger, sadness, fear, surprise, and happiness compared to younger adults, strengthening the results obtained by Ruffman et al. (2008). However, meta-regression analyses indicate that effect sizes are moderated by sample characteristics and stimulus features. Importantly, the estimated effect size for the identification of fear and disgust increased for larger differences in the number of years of formal education between the two groups.

Discussion

We discuss several factors that might explain the age-related differences in emotion identification and suggest how brain changes may account for the observed pattern. Furthermore, moderator effects are interpreted and discussed.

SUBMITTER: Goncalves AR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6064197 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Effects of age on the identification of emotions in facial expressions: a meta-analysis.

Gonçalves Ana R AR Fernandes Carina C Pasion Rita R Ferreira-Santos Fernando F Barbosa Fernando F Marques-Teixeira João J

PeerJ 20180725

<h4>Background</h4>Emotion identification is a fundamental component of social cognition. Although it is well established that a general cognitive decline occurs with advancing age, the effects of age on emotion identification is still unclear. A meta-analysis by Ruffman and colleagues (2008) explored this issue, but much research has been published since then, reporting inconsistent findings.<h4>Methods</h4>To examine age differences in the identification of facial expressions of emotion, we co ...[more]

PMID: 30065878

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Project description:Visual mismatch negativity (vMMN), a component in event-related potentials (ERPs), can be elicited when rarely presented "deviant" facial expressions violate regularity formed by repeated "standard" faces. vMMN is observed as differential ERPs elicited between the deviant and standard faces. It is not clear, however, whether differential ERPs to rare emotional faces interspersed with repeated neutral ones reflect true vMMN (i.e., detection of regularity violation) or merely encoding of the emotional content in the faces. Furthermore, a face-sensitive N170 response, which reflects structural encoding of facial features, can be modulated by emotional expressions. Owing to its similar latency and scalp topography with vMMN, these two components are difficult to separate. We recorded ERPs to neutral, fearful, and happy faces in two different stimulus presentation conditions in adult humans. For the oddball condition group, frequently presented neutral expressions (p = 0.8) were rarely replaced by happy or fearful expressions (p = 0.1), whereas for the equiprobable condition group, fearful, happy, and neutral expressions were presented with equal probability (p = 0.33). Independent component analysis (ICA) revealed two prominent components in both stimulus conditions in the relevant latency range and scalp location. A component peaking at 130 ms post stimulus showed a difference in scalp topography between the oddball (bilateral) and the equiprobable (right-dominant) conditions. The other component, peaking at 170 ms post stimulus, showed no difference between the conditions. The bilateral component at the 130-ms latency in the oddball condition conforms to vMMN. Moreover, it was distinct from N170 which was modulated by the emotional expression only. The present results suggest that future studies on vMMN to facial expressions should take into account possible confounding effects caused by the differential processing of the emotional expressions as such.

Dataset Information

Effects of age on the identification of emotions in facial expressions: a meta-analysis.

Background

Methods

Results

Discussion

Publications

Effects of age on the identification of emotions in facial expressions: a meta-analysis.

Similar Datasets

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