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Impaired fear recognition in regular recreational cocaine users
L Kemmis1, J K Hall, R Kingston
1Department of Psychology, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QG, UK.
Psychopharmacology
|June 8, 2007
Summary
Regular recreational cocaine users showed impaired fear recognition compared to occasional users and cocaine-naïve individuals. This suggests a specific deficit in processing fear in this population.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
Background:
- Facial expression recognition is crucial for social interaction.
- Previous research has not investigated this ability in recreational cocaine users.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate facial expression recognition in recreational cocaine users.
- To compare performance between cocaine-naïve, occasional cocaine, and regular recreational cocaine users.
Main Methods:
- Administered an emotional facial expression (EFE) task and the "Eyes task".
- Assessed psychopathology using the Symptom CheckList-90-Revised.
- Compared accuracy and response latencies across three participant groups.
Main Results:
- Regular cocaine users exhibited impaired fear recognition accuracy.
- Regular cocaine users were slower in identifying anger, fear, happiness, and surprise.
- No group differences in psychopathology or "Eyes task" performance were found.
Conclusions:
- Regular recreational cocaine use is associated with a selective deficit in fear recognition.
- This deficit is not explained by subacute drug effects.
- Potential parallels with psychopathy and amygdala dysfunction are discussed.
