Assessment of facial emotion recognition accuracy and reaction time in patients with social anxiety disorder diagnosed with performance-only specifier.

Authors

Hasan Demirci, Efruz Pirdoğan Aydın, Murat Can Gümüş, Bekir Alp Kamazoğlu, Ömer Akil Özer

Published in

Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology. Pages 1-15. Jul 04, 2026. Epub Jul 04, 2026.

Abstract

To compare the facial emotion recognition (FER) accuracy and reaction time (RT) of patients with performance-type social anxiety disorder (pSAD) and generalized-type social anxiety disorder (gSAD) with healthy controls (HCs).
A total of 56 patients who were diagnosed as having SAD (31 gSAD and, 25 pSAD) according to the diagnostic criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) were included in the study. Forty individuals with no psychiatric disorders were included as the HCs. FER skills were assessed using a task that included Ekman's basic emotions and a neutral face. Additionally, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) were administered to all participants.
FER performances of patients with pSAD were similar to the HC group. The accuracy rates for emotions other than sadness in patients with gSAD were similar to those in the HC group. The RT to all facial expressions in patients with gSAD was statistically significantly shorter than in the HCs (p < 0.005). The RT given to facial emotions other than sadness was shorter in the pSAD patient group compared with the HC group. A negative correlation was found between STAI-state anxiety and neutral face recognition. (r = -0.308, p < 0.05). However, except for neutral face recognition, no significant correlation was observed between the BDI, STAI-state, STAI-trait, LSAS-fear, LSAS-avoidance, and FERT subscales.
The current study casts doubt on some of the effects reported in the literature on SAD's FER ability. In this study, no significant difference was found in FER ability among SAD subtypes; this may suggest that a common mechanism exists in both subtypes.

PMID:
42400335
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 04 Jul 2026.

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