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Facial EMG reactivity to emotional stimuli and the severity and course of major depression

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3Stanford University, Department of Psychology, Psychophysiology Laboratory. BACKGROUND ... Psychophysiology, 23, 567-589. Rottenberg, J. & Gotlib, I. H. (2004) ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Facial EMG reactivity to emotional stimuli and the severity and course of major depression


1
Facial EMG reactivity to emotional stimuli and
the severity and course of major depression
April Clift1, Ian Gotlib2, James Gross3, and
Jonathan Rottenberg1
1University of South Florida, Psychology
Department, Mood and Emotion Laboratory
2Stanford University, Department of Psychology,
Mood and Anxiety Disorders Laboratory 3Stanford
University, Department of Psychology,
Psychophysiology Laboratory
BACKGROUND
SUMMARY

HYPOTHESES
  • Summary of Findings
  • These results provide some support for the idea
    that decreased reactivity to affective stimuli is
    a depression severity marker
  • The stronger findings for personal-relevant
    stimuli highlight the importance of using
    idiographic stimuli to study depression
  • Because of the small sample size, these results
    are preliminary.
  • Future Directions
  • Replication in larger samples of depressed and at
    risk individuals
  • The present study was naturalistic the
    relationship between emotional reactivity and
    depression may be stronger when treatment is
    controlled.

RESULTS
Rottenberg and Gotlib (2004) claimed that
depression involves reduced reactivity to
positively and negatively valenced stimuli and
that this lack of reactivity may be more
pronounced in more severe depressive episodes.
Facial electromyography (EMG) provides one
objective method for measuring affective
reactions. Personally relevant (idiographic)
stimuli may be more effective at eliciting affect
than normative stimuli alone (Beck, 1983).  This
study examined the relation between depression
severity and lack of facial EMG reactivity in
response to idiographic and normative films.
We predicted that Reduced EMG reactivity to
normative and idiographic emotion films would
be associated with more severe depression at 1a)
initial assessment (Time 1) and 1b) six months
later (Time 2).
Hypothesis 1a EMG Reactivity and Depression
Severity at Time 1 Lack of corrugator reactivity
was associated with more severe depressive
symptoms at Time 1 happy (r -.56), sad (r
-.42), and neutral (r -.49) idiographic films
(ps from .05 to .1). Zygomatic EMG was
nonsignificant. EMG reactivity to normative
films was also nonsignificant. These findings did
not support hypothesis 1.
  • Normative and idiographic emotion films were used
    to manipulate the facial expressions of 15
    depressed patients. EMG of the corrugator
    muscles, associated with frowning, and the
    zygomatic muscles, associated with smiling, were
    collected using procedures recommended by
    Fridlund and Cacioppo (1986). Measures of
    depression severity were collected at Time 1 and
    at Time 2, six months later.
  • Emotion Stimuli Sad
    Neutral Happy
  • Normative Films
  • Idiographic Films

METHODS
REFERENCES
Beck, A. T. (1983). Cognitive therapy of
depression New perspectives. In P.J. Clayton
J.E. Barrett (eds.), Treatment of depression Old
controversies and new approaches (pp.265-290).
New York Raven Press. Fridlund, A. J.
Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). Guidelines for human
electromyography research. Psychophysiology, 23,
567-589. Rottenberg, J. Gotlib, I. H. (2004).
Socioemotional functioning in depression. In M.
Power (Ed.), Mood disorders A handbook of
science and practice. (pp. 61-77). New York
Wiley.
Hypothesis 1b EMG Reactivity and Depression
Severity at Time 2 There was no relationship
between expressiveness at Time 1 and depressive
severity at Time 2 with the possible exception of
greater zygomatic reactivity to the neutral
normative film being associated with less severe
depressive symptoms (r-.42, p.12). All other
ps for ranged from .16 to .99.
For more information about this poster, contact
April Clift at aclift_at_mail.usf.edu.
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