Decoding Emotion in Drug Abusers: Evidence for Face and Body Emotion Recognition and for Disgust Emotion

Background: Different drugs damage the frontal cortices, particularly the prefrontal areas involved in both emotional and cognitive functions, with a consequence of decoding emotion deficits for people with substance abuse. The present study aimed to explore the cognitive impairments in drug abusers...

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Published in:European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education psychology and education, 2022-09, Vol.12 (9), p.1427-1440
Main Authors: Bonfiglio, Natale Salvatore, Renati, Roberta, Bottini, Gabriella
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accuracy
Alcohol
alcohol dependence
Blindness
body
Brain
Brain damage
Cocaine
cocaine dependence
Coding
Cognitive Processes
Control Groups
Dementia
disgust
Drug Rehabilitation
Drug Therapy
Drug use
emotional processing
Emotions
Experiments
face
Fear
Group Activities
Interpersonal Relationship
Narcotics
Neurological disorders
Neurological Impairments
Stimuli
Substance Abuse
Substance abuse treatment
Traumatic brain injury
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Summary:Background: Different drugs damage the frontal cortices, particularly the prefrontal areas involved in both emotional and cognitive functions, with a consequence of decoding emotion deficits for people with substance abuse. The present study aimed to explore the cognitive impairments in drug abusers through facial, body and disgust emotion recognition, expanding the investigation of emotions processing, measuring accuracy and response velocity. Methods: We enrolled 13 addicted to cocaine and 12 alcohol patients attending treatment services in Italy, comparing them with 33 matched controls. Facial emotion and body posture recognition tasks, a disgust rating task and the Barrat Impulsivity Scale were included in the experimental assessment. Results: We found that emotional processes are differently influenced by cocaine and alcohol, suggesting that these substances impact diverse cerebral systems. Conclusions: Drug abusers seem to be less accurate on elaboration of facial, body and disgust emotions. Considering that the participants were not cognitively impaired, our data support the hypothesis that emotional impairments emerge independently from the damage of cognitive functions.
ISSN:2254-9625
2174-8144
2254-9625
DOI:10.3390/ejihpe12090099