April 14, 2022
An intervention that involves training to recognize facial expressions, and also mimicking these expressions, may help people with multiple sclerosis (MS) who have trouble recognizing facial affect, according to data from a small clinical trial.
These findings were reported in the study “Emotional processing intervention (EMOPRINT): A blinded randomized control trial to treat facial affect recognition deficits in multiple sclerosis,” which was published in the journal Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders.
MS can cause cognitive problems, including difficulty with social cognition — the processes the brain uses to recognize social cues, such as facial expressions. Consequently, people with MS may experience trouble recognizing facial affects and identifying the emotions of others, which can cause difficulties in interpersonal interactions.
“Improving facial recognition may improve interpersonal relationships and lead to better outcomes at home and in the workplace,” Helen Genova, PhD, the study’s first author and associate director of the Center for Autism Research at the Kessler Foundation, said in a press release.
The Kessler Foundation sponsored a clinical trial called EMOPRINT (NCT03373344) to test an intervention that aims to improve facial affect recognition in MS patients.
In the trial, 21 people with MS underwent an intervention to improve facial affect recognition. During sessions, participants would be given specific instructions and tasks related to identifying expressions — for example, sorting pictures of faces by expression — and also perform mimicry, where they would be shown an expression and asked to emulate it themselves. Participants undertook 12 sessions, each lasting 30 to 60 minutes, twice per week over five weeks.
The intervention “is focused on improving facial affect recognition via two sets of skills: identifying prototypical facial gestures associated with six universal emotions and using mimicry as a way to increase awareness of emotional experiences in oneself and others,” the researchers wrote.