Ian S. Penton-Voak's research while affiliated with University of Bristol and other places
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Publications (194)
Background: Adolescence is a period of heightened vulnerability to developing mental health problems, and rates of mental health disorder in this age group have increased in the last decade. Preventing mental health problems developing before they become entrenched, particularly in adolescents who are at high risk, is an important research and clin...
Facial emotion recognition (ER) difficulties are associated with mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism and poorer social functioning. ER interventions may therefore have clinical potential. We investigated the efficacy of ER training (ERT). We conducted three online studies with healthy volunteers completing one ERT sess...
Studies suggest that an attentional bias to thin bodies is common among those with high levels of body dissatisfaction, which is a risk factor for, and symptom of, various eating disorders. However, these studies have predominantly been conducted in Western countries with body stimuli involving images of White people. In a preregistered study, we r...
Anxiety and depression are associated with a range of impairments in cognitive functioning. Understanding the nature of these deficits may identify targets for intervention and prevent functional decline. We used observational and genetic methods to investigate the relationship of anxiety and depression with three cognitive domains: emotion recogni...
Accepted for publication in Royal Society Open Science.
10.31234/osf.io/an59j
BACKGROUND
Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) interventions are being developed and trialled for use in the treatment of eating disorders. However, little work has explored the opinions of people with eating disorders, or the clinicians who treat them, on the possible use of VR in this context.
OBJECTIVE
To use qualitative methodology to explore the v...
Background: Difficulties in facial emotion recognition are associated with a range of mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions and can negatively impact longer term social functioning. Interventions that target facial emotion recognition may therefore have important clinical potential, for example for autistic individuals. We investigated th...
Body dissatisfaction is defined as the negative subjective evaluation of one’s body and is considered a risk factor for, and symptom of, eating disorders. Some studies show women with high body dissatisfaction display an attentional bias towards low weight bodies; however, this finding is not consistent, and results are yet to be systematically syn...
Background:
Emotional dysregulation may be a risk factor for disordered eating and self-harm in young people, but few prospective studies have assessed these associations long-term, or considered potential mediators. We examined prospective relationships between childhood emotional dysregulation and disordered eating and self-harm in adolescence;...
Background:
Although autism and callous-unemotional (CU) traits are distinct conditions, both are associated with difficulties in emotion recognition. However, it is unknown whether the emotion recognition difficulties characteristic of autism and CU traits are driven by comparable underpinning mechanisms.
Methods:
We tested whether cueing to th...
BACKGROUND
The positive and negative effects of interacting with online content on mental health and especially self-harm, are well documented. Lived experience stories are one such type of static online content, frequently published on healthcare or third sector organization websites, as well as social media and blogs, as a form of support for tho...
Background:
The positive and negative effects of interacting with web-based content on mental health, and especially self-harm, are well documented. Lived experience stories are one such type of static web-based content, frequently published on health care or third-sector organization websites, as well as social media and blogs, as a form of suppo...
Background
Major depressive disorder (MDD) was previously associated with negative affective biases. Evidence from larger population-based studies, however, is lacking, including whether biases normalise with remission. We investigated associations between affective bias measures and depressive symptom severity across a large community-based sample...
Body dissatisfaction is defined as the negative subjective evaluation of one’s body and is considered a risk factor for, and symptom of, eating disorders. Some studies show women with high body dissatisfaction display an attentional bias towards low weight bodies; however, this finding is not consistent, and results are yet to be systematically syn...
Background
Emotional dysregulation may be a risk factor for disordered eating and self-harm in young people, but few prospective studies have assessed these associations long-term, or considered potential mediators. We examined prospective relationships between childhood emotional dysregulation and disordered eating and self-harm in adolescence; an...
Background
Anhedonia – a diminished interest or pleasure in activities – is a core self-reported symptom of depression which is poorly understood and often resistant to conventional antidepressants. This symptom may occur due to dysfunction in one or more sub-components of reward processing: motivation, consummatory experience and/or learning. Howe...
Background: The Research Excellence Framework (REF) in the United Kingdom is a system to assess the quality of research, requiring higher education institutions to select a sample of research outputs to submit for assessment. We tested whether prediction markets, in a novel application, could help institutions decide which research outputs to submi...
Attentional bias to low-fat bodies is thought to be associated with body dissatisfaction-a symptom and risk factor of eating disorders. However, the causal nature of this relationship is unclear. In three preregistered experiments, we trained 370 women to attend towards either high- or low-fat body stimuli using an attention training dot probe task...
Studies suggest that an attentional bias to thin bodies is common amongst those with high levels of body dissatisfaction, which is a risk factor for, and symptom of, eating disorders. However, these studies have predominantly been conducted in Western countries with body stimuli involving images of White people. It is not known whether this relatio...
State anxiety appears to influence facial emotion processing (Attwood et al . 2017 R. Soc. Open Sci. 4 , 160855). We aimed to (i) replicate these findings and (ii) investigate the role of trait anxiety, in an experiment with healthy UK participants ( N = 48, 50% male, 50% high trait anxiety). High and low state anxiety were induced via inhalations...
Background: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is associated with negative affective cognitive biases. Differences on population level however remain unclear, including whether they normalise with remission. This study investigated associations between affective cognition and MDD within a large community-based sample.Methods: Participants from Generat...
Attentional bias to low fat bodies is thought to be associated with body dissatisfaction—a symptom and risk factor of eating disorders. However, the causal nature of this relationship is unclear. In three preregistered experiments, we trained 370 women to attend towards either high or low fat body stimuli using an attention training dot probe task....
Background. Anhedonia, a diminished interest or pleasure in activities, is a core self-reported symptom of depression which is poorly understood and often resistant to conventional antidepressants. This symptom may occur due to dysfunction in one or more sub-components of reward processing: motivation, consummatory experience, and/or learning. Howe...
Objective
Tests of theories of mate choice often rely on data gathered in White, industrialised samples and this is especially the case for studies of facial attraction. Our understanding of preferences for sexual dimorphism is currently in flux and a number of hypotheses require testing in more diverse participant samples. The current study uses o...
We used the 7.5% carbon dioxide (CO2) model of anxiety induction to investigate the effects of state anxiety on normal gait and gait when navigating an obstacle. Healthy volunteers (n = 22) completed a walking task during inhalations of 7.5% CO2 and medical air (placebo) in a within-subjects design. The order of inhalation was counterbalanced acros...
Background: Understanding the nature of cognitive deficits in anxiety and depression may identify intervention targets and help prevent functional decline. This study used observational and genetic methods to investigate the association of anxiety and depression with emotion recognition, response inhibition, and working memory, in young adulthood....
STratifying Resilience and Depression Longitudinally (STRADL) is a population-based study built on the Generation Scotland: Scottish Family Health Study (GS:SFHS) resource. The aim of STRADL is to subtype major depressive disorder (MDD) on the basis of its aetiology, using detailed clinical, cognitive, and brain imaging assessments. The GS:SFHS pro...
Objective
Probing targeted, mechanism-based interventions is the next generation of treatment innovation. Biased threat labeling of ambiguous face emotions (interpretation bias) is a potential behavioral treatment target for anger, aggression, and irritability. Changing biases in face-emotion labeling may improve irritability-related outcomes. Here...
Background
Anxiety and depression are leading causes of disability worldwide, yet individuals are often unable to access appropriate treatment. There is a need to develop effective interventions that can be delivered remotely. Previous research has suggested that emotional processing biases are a potential target for intervention, and these may be...
Background: Psychosis-like experiences (PLEs) are common and associated with mental health problems and poorer cognitive function. There is limited longitudinal research examining associations between cognition and PLEs in early adulthood.
Aims: We investigated the association of PLEs with different domains of cognitive function, using cross-sectio...
Background:
There is mixed evidence for an association between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and emotion recognition deficits. We sought to assess the bidirectionality of this association using phenotypic and genetic data in a large community sample.
Methods:
Analyses were conducted in three stages. First, we examined the bidirectional associat...
Objective: Tests of theories of mate choice often rely on data gathered in White, industrialised samples and this is especially the case for studies of facial attraction. Our understanding of preferences for sexual dimorphism is currently in flux and a number of hypotheses require testing in more diverse participant samples. The current study uses...
State anxiety appears to influence facial emotion processing (Attwood et al., 2017). We aimed to (a) replicate these findings, and (b) investigate the role of trait anxiety, in an experiment with healthy UK participants (N = 48, 50% male, 50% high trait anxiety). High and low state anxiety were induced via inhalations of 7.5% carbon dioxide enriche...
Background
: Bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with emotion interpretation biases that can exacerbate depressed mood. Interpretation bias training (IBT) may help; according to the “virtuous cycle” hypothesis, interpreting others’ emotions as positive can lead to interactions that improve mood. Our goals were to determine whether IBT can shift emo...
Anxiety and depression are leading causes of disability worldwide, yet individuals are often unable to access appropriate treatment. There is a need to develop effective interventions that can be delivered remotely. Previous research has suggested that emotional processing biases are a potential target for intervention, and these may be altered thr...
There is substantial variation in the timing of significant reproductive life events such as menarche and first sexual intercourse. Life history theory explains this variation as an adaptive response to an individual’s environment and it is important to examine how traits within life history strategies affect each other. Here we applied Mendelian r...
Background
Research suggests that acute alcohol consumption impairs processing of emotional faces. As emotion processing plays a key role in effective social interaction, these impairments may be one mechanism by which alcohol changes social behaviour. This study investigated the effect of individual differences on this relationship by comparing em...
Background:
There is mixed evidence for an association between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and emotion recognition deficits. We sought to assess the bidirectionality of this association using phenotypic and genetic data in a large community sample.
Methods:
Analyses were conducted in three stages. First, we examined the bidirectional association...
Background: Body dissatisfaction is a key part of the psychopathology of eating disorders, but there is a lack of consensus as to whether the dissatisfaction arises from misperception of body size, and if such misperception applies to others’ as well as own size. Methods: We conducted a case control study of women with and without an eating disorde...
Body dissatisfaction is associated with subsequent eating disorders and weight gain. One-off exposure to bodies of different sizes changes perception of others' bodies, and perception of and satisfaction with own body size. The effect of repeated exposure to bodies of different sizes has not been assessed. We randomized women into three groups, and...
Background
There is demand for new, effective and scalable treatments for depression, and development of new forms of cognitive bias modification (CBM) of negative emotional processing biases has been suggested as possible interventions to meet this need.
Methods
We report two double blind RCTs, in which volunteers with high levels of depressive s...
Background: Body dissatisfaction is a key feature of eating disorders. It is measured using questionnaires asking about satisfaction with body parts, or how feelings about weight and shape influence behaviour. Qualitative research finds that women most frequently use clothing to manage their appearance. Methods: We designed an Outfit Choice Task to...
STratifying Resilience and Depression Longitudinally (STRADL) is a population-based study built on the Generation Scotland: Scottish Family Health Study (GS:SFHS) resource. The aim of STRADL is to subtype major depressive disorder (MDD) on the basis of its aetiology, using detailed clinical, cognitive, and brain imaging assessments. The GS:SFHS pro...
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is common in people who offend and is associated with risk of violence. As social cognition is often affected by TBI, we suggest criminal behaviour in people with TBI may be associated with deficits in social cognition. This study investigates facial affect recognition (FAR) in adolescent and young adult offenders with...
It has been proposed that impairments in emotion recognition in ASD are greater for more subtle expressions of emotion. We measured recognition of 6 basic facial expressions at 8 intensity levels in young people (6–16 years) with ASD (N = 63) and controls (N = 64) via an Internet platform. Participants with ASD were less accurate than controls at l...
Objective:
Cognitive theories suggest people with depression interpret self-referential social information negatively. However, it is unclear whether these biases precede or follow depression. We investigated whether facial expression recognition was associated with depressive symptoms cross-sectionally and longitudinally.
Methods:
Prospective c...
Schizophrenia is a debilitating and heritable mental disorder associated with lower reproductive success. However, the prevalence of schizophrenia is stable over populations and time, resulting in an evolutionary puzzle: how is schizophrenia maintained in the population, given its apparent fitness costs? One possibility is that increased genetic li...
Background::
Research suggests that acute alcohol consumption alters recognition of emotional expressions. Extending this work, we investigated the effects of alcohol on recognition of six primary expressions of emotion.
Methods::
We conducted two studies using a 2 × 6 experimental design with a between-subjects factor of drink (alcohol, placebo...
This paper reports the results of two randomised controlled experiments looking at the effect of a training methodology designed to increase the recognition of happy emotion in low intensity happy facial expressions in children (Study 1) and adults (Study 2) with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The training paradigm utilised images from a morph se...
Background
Severe, chronic, and impairing irritability is a common presenting clinical problem in youth. Indeed, it was recently operationalized as disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD) in the DSM-5. However, to date, there are no evidence-based treatments that were specifically developed for DMDD. The current randomized controlled trial as...
There is substantial variation in the timing of significant reproductive life events such as menarche and first sexual intercourse. Life history theory explains this variation as an adaptive response to the developmental environment. In environments characterized by harsh conditions, adopting a fast life history strategy may increase fitness. In li...
Schizophrenia is a debilitating and heritable mental disorder associated with lower reproductive success. However, the prevalence of schizophrenia is stable over populations and time, resulting in an evolutionary puzzle: how is schizophrenia maintained in the population given its apparent fitness costs? One possibility is that increased genetic lia...
IMPORTANCE
Depression is a debilitating and highly prevalent mental health disorder. There is a need for new, effective, and scalable treatments for depression, and cognitive bias modification (CBM) of negative emotional processing biases has been suggested as one possibility. Such treatments may form the basis of ‘digital therapeutics’, that could...
Body dissatisfaction is prevalent among women and associated with subsequent obesity and eating disorders. Exposure to images of bodies of different sizes has been suggested to change the perception of ‘normal’ body size in others. We tested whether exposure to different-sized (otherwise identical) bodies changes perception of own and others’ body...
Background:
Emotion recognition skills are essential for social communication. Deficits in these skills have been implicated in mental disorders. Prior studies of clinical and high-risk samples have consistently shown that children exposed to adversity are more likely than their unexposed peers to have emotion recognition skills deficits. However,...
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1098/rsos.161076.].
This study aimed to examine the effect of emotion recognition training on social anxiety symptoms among adolescents, aged 15–18 years. The study included a screening session, which identified participants who scored above a cut-off on a self-report measure of social anxiety for enrolment into a randomized controlled trial (Clinical Trials ID: NCT02...
We introduce “EloChoice”, a package for R which uses Elo rating to assess pairwise comparisons between stimuli in order to measure perceived stimulus characteristics. To demonstrate the package and compare results from forced choice pairwise comparisons to those from more standard single stimulus rating tasks using Likert (or Likert-type) items, we...
Cognitive bias modification is a potential low-intensity intervention for mood disorders, but previous studies have shown mixed success. This study explored whether facial interpretation bias modification (FIBM), a similar paradigm designed to shift emotional interpretation (and/or perception) of faces would transfer to: (i) self-reported symptoms...
Smoking is associated with negative health of skin and increased signs of facial ageing. We aimed to address two questions about smoking and appearance: (1) does facial appearance alone provide an indication of smoking status, and (2) how does smoking affect the attractiveness of faces? We used faces of identical twins discordant for smoking, and p...