Biased Attention to Facial Expressions of Ambiguous Emotions in Borderline Personality Disorder: An Eye-Tracking Study

Deborah Kaiser; Gitta A. Jacob; Linda van Zutphen; Nicolette Siep; Andreas Sprenger; Brunna Tuschen-Caffier; Alena Senft; Arnoud Arntz; Gregor Domes

doi:10.1521/pedi_2019_33_363

Biased Attention to Facial Expressions of Ambiguous Emotions in Borderline Personality Disorder: An Eye-Tracking Study

Deborah Kaiser^*, Gitta A. Jacob, Linda van Zutphen, Nicolette Siep, Andreas Sprenger, Brunna Tuschen-Caffier, Alena Senft, Arnoud Arntz, Gregor Domes

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Preliminary evidence suggests that biased attention could be crucial in
fostering the emotion recognition abnormalities in borderline personality
disorder (BPD). We compared BPD patients to Cluster-C personality disorder (CC) patients and non-patients (NP) regarding emotion recognition in
ambiguous faces and their visual attention allocation to the eyes. The role
of comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in BPD regarding emotion recognition and visual attention was explored. BPD patients fixated the
eyes of angry/happy, sad/happy, and fearful/sad blends longer than nonpatients. This visual attention pattern was mainly driven by BPD patients
with PTSD. This subgroup also demonstrated longer fixations than CC
patients and a trend towards longer fixations than BPD patients without
PTSD for the angry/happy and fearful/sad blends. Emotion recognition was
not altered in BPD. Biased visual attention towards the eyes of ambiguous
facial expressions in BPD might be due to trauma-related attentional bias
rather than to impairments in facial emotion recognition.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	671-690
Number of pages	28
Journal	Journal of Personality Disorders
Volume	33
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1521/pedi_2019_33_363
Publication status	Published - Oct 2019

Keywords

borderline personality disorder
emotion recognition
face perception
eye tracking
visual attention bias
posttraumatic stress disorder
STRUCTURED CLINICAL INTERVIEW
POSTTRAUMATIC-STRESS-DISORDER
DIALECTICAL BEHAVIOR-THERAPY
CHILDHOOD SEXUAL-ABUSE
AXIS-I COMORBIDITY
PSYCHOMETRIC EVALUATION
RECOGNITION
THREAT
SENSITIVITY
CHILDREN

Access to Document

10.1521/pedi_2019_33_363

Cite this

@article{de20dc8ac55047c7bfa32bb186298f6e,

title = "Biased Attention to Facial Expressions of Ambiguous Emotions in Borderline Personality Disorder: An Eye-Tracking Study",

abstract = "Preliminary evidence suggests that biased attention could be crucial infostering the emotion recognition abnormalities in borderline personalitydisorder (BPD). We compared BPD patients to Cluster-C personality disorder (CC) patients and non-patients (NP) regarding emotion recognition inambiguous faces and their visual attention allocation to the eyes. The roleof comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in BPD regarding emotion recognition and visual attention was explored. BPD patients fixated theeyes of angry/happy, sad/happy, and fearful/sad blends longer than nonpatients. This visual attention pattern was mainly driven by BPD patientswith PTSD. This subgroup also demonstrated longer fixations than CCpatients and a trend towards longer fixations than BPD patients withoutPTSD for the angry/happy and fearful/sad blends. Emotion recognition wasnot altered in BPD. Biased visual attention towards the eyes of ambiguousfacial expressions in BPD might be due to trauma-related attentional biasrather than to impairments in facial emotion recognition.",

keywords = "borderline personality disorder, emotion recognition, face perception, eye tracking, visual attention bias, posttraumatic stress disorder, STRUCTURED CLINICAL INTERVIEW, POSTTRAUMATIC-STRESS-DISORDER, DIALECTICAL BEHAVIOR-THERAPY, CHILDHOOD SEXUAL-ABUSE, AXIS-I COMORBIDITY, PSYCHOMETRIC EVALUATION, RECOGNITION, THREAT, SENSITIVITY, CHILDREN",

author = "Deborah Kaiser and Jacob, {Gitta A.} and {van Zutphen}, Linda and Nicolette Siep and Andreas Sprenger and Brunna Tuschen-Caffier and Alena Senft and Arnoud Arntz and Gregor Domes",

year = "2019",

month = oct,

doi = "10.1521/pedi_2019_33_363",

language = "English",

volume = "33",

pages = "671--690",

journal = "Journal of Personality Disorders",

issn = "0885-579X",

publisher = "Guilford Publications Inc",

number = "5",

}

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T1 - Biased Attention to Facial Expressions of Ambiguous Emotions in Borderline Personality Disorder

T2 - An Eye-Tracking Study

AU - Kaiser, Deborah

AU - Jacob, Gitta A.

AU - van Zutphen, Linda

AU - Siep, Nicolette

AU - Sprenger, Andreas

AU - Tuschen-Caffier, Brunna

AU - Senft, Alena

AU - Arntz, Arnoud

AU - Domes, Gregor

PY - 2019/10

Y1 - 2019/10

N2 - Preliminary evidence suggests that biased attention could be crucial infostering the emotion recognition abnormalities in borderline personalitydisorder (BPD). We compared BPD patients to Cluster-C personality disorder (CC) patients and non-patients (NP) regarding emotion recognition inambiguous faces and their visual attention allocation to the eyes. The roleof comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in BPD regarding emotion recognition and visual attention was explored. BPD patients fixated theeyes of angry/happy, sad/happy, and fearful/sad blends longer than nonpatients. This visual attention pattern was mainly driven by BPD patientswith PTSD. This subgroup also demonstrated longer fixations than CCpatients and a trend towards longer fixations than BPD patients withoutPTSD for the angry/happy and fearful/sad blends. Emotion recognition wasnot altered in BPD. Biased visual attention towards the eyes of ambiguousfacial expressions in BPD might be due to trauma-related attentional biasrather than to impairments in facial emotion recognition.

AB - Preliminary evidence suggests that biased attention could be crucial infostering the emotion recognition abnormalities in borderline personalitydisorder (BPD). We compared BPD patients to Cluster-C personality disorder (CC) patients and non-patients (NP) regarding emotion recognition inambiguous faces and their visual attention allocation to the eyes. The roleof comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in BPD regarding emotion recognition and visual attention was explored. BPD patients fixated theeyes of angry/happy, sad/happy, and fearful/sad blends longer than nonpatients. This visual attention pattern was mainly driven by BPD patientswith PTSD. This subgroup also demonstrated longer fixations than CCpatients and a trend towards longer fixations than BPD patients withoutPTSD for the angry/happy and fearful/sad blends. Emotion recognition wasnot altered in BPD. Biased visual attention towards the eyes of ambiguousfacial expressions in BPD might be due to trauma-related attentional biasrather than to impairments in facial emotion recognition.

KW - borderline personality disorder

KW - emotion recognition

KW - face perception

KW - eye tracking

KW - visual attention bias

KW - posttraumatic stress disorder

KW - STRUCTURED CLINICAL INTERVIEW

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KW - DIALECTICAL BEHAVIOR-THERAPY

KW - CHILDHOOD SEXUAL-ABUSE

KW - AXIS-I COMORBIDITY

KW - PSYCHOMETRIC EVALUATION

KW - RECOGNITION

KW - THREAT

KW - SENSITIVITY

KW - CHILDREN

U2 - 10.1521/pedi_2019_33_363

DO - 10.1521/pedi_2019_33_363

M3 - Article

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SP - 671

EP - 690

JO - Journal of Personality Disorders

JF - Journal of Personality Disorders

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