Emotional facial expression recognition and emotion regulation in undergraduate students with disordered eating

Abstract

It is generally accepted that problematic emotional processing is central in anorexia nervosa. The current study explored emotional processing deficits in a non-clinical, restrictive disordered eating population by investigating emotional facial expression recognition accuracy in terms of basic emotions; level of emotion intensity; and perceptual and attentional processing through eye-tracking. Seventy-seven females were delineated into Average (n=46) and High (n=31) Body Mass Index (BMI) groups. BMI groups were split into high and low restricting groups via the Dieting subscale of the EAT-26. Participants viewed 96 images and were asked to identify the emotion. In restricting groups, results revealed no differences in recognition rates for the Average BMI group. For the High BMI group, results revealed greater recognition accuracy than the low restrictive group, regardless of emotion/intensity. Eye-tracking analyses revealed that the high restricting group spent more time viewing the face, specifically the eye/brow area at low intensities.