Déficits no reconhecimento de faces emocionais em crianças com traços callous-unemotional

Abstract

Background: Callous-unemotional traits include the nuclear affective deficit component which characterizes psychopathy. The presence of conduct problems (CP) with callous-unemotional traits (CA/U) in childhood has been suggested as a predictor of psychopathy in adulthood. Studies that investigated the deficits in emotional processing of psychopathic individuals found impairment in their ability to recognize emotions expressed by the face. In order to identify early traits of this disorder and, in particular, the deficits associated with the affective-emotional component, especially the recognition of facial expressions, studies with samples of children and adolescents have indicated similar results, but still there is no methodological convergence. Considering the data already found, the Study I of this dissertation, presented as a general goal, is to investigate, through the recognition of emotional faces, if there are differences between the processing of emotional faces in children with conduct problems, with or without the presence of callous-unemotional traits, and a control group. Study II aimed to verify that the intelligence quotient (IQ) is a moderator in the deficit of emotional processing in children with callous-unemotional traits. Method: Children between the ages six and eight from schools in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil were evaluated based on the scores from the ICU teachers’ version (ICU ≥ 35) and CP SDQ subscale (≥ 5). In Study I, 50 children participated and were divided into three groups: 1) 14 children with CA/U+CP+; 2) 6 children with CA/U-CP+; and 4) 30 children without the presence of any pervasive developmental disorder (PDD). In the second study, the 49 children that were included in the sample formed two groups: 1) 22 children with CA/U+; and 2) 27 children with CA/U- based on the ICU teachers scores (≥ 35 ICU and ICU <24). In both studies children performed a task of facial expression recognition. Results: Study I group CA/U+CP+ revealed deficits in recognizing emotional facial expressions in general (p <0.05), as well as fear expressions, when compared to the control group. In Study II the CA/U+ group revealed that the deficits in recognizing the emotion of fear is not related to estimated IQ scores, but rather is related to the high presence of CA/U traits. Conclusion: The results from this dissertation confirm the poorer performance in recognizing emotional facial expressions in general, as well as deficits in recognizing the emotion of fear, among children with CA/U traits and conduct problems, when compared with the control group. Furthermore, in accordance with our hypothesis, deficits in recognizing the emotion of fear among group CA/U+ children are not explained by estimated IQ scores, but rather by the presence of CA/U+ traits.