DECODING OF FACIALLY EXPRESSED EMOTIONS IN PATIENTS WITH PSYCHOSOMATIC GASTROINTESTINAL DISORDERS

The hypothesis that individuals with psychosomatic conditions are lack ing in empathy was tested by investigating decoding abilities of facia lly expressed emotions. Fourteen subjects with psychosomatic gastroint estinal disorders and 14 matched controls participated. Slides of one male and one female. model's facial expressions of anger, disgust, fea r, happiness, sadness, and surprise, and a neutral face, were presente d to subjects, with exposure durations of 1/60, 1/15 and 4 seconds. Su bjects had to decide whether the face presented was neutral or express ed one of the basic emotions. There were no significant group differen ces in decoding neutral expressions, but significant differences resul ted in decoding emotional expressions. This was mainly due to the sign ificantly poorer performance of the psychosomatic group in decoding di sgust Subjects' responding was found to be reliable. The findings show that at least certain subgroups of psychosomatic patients tend to mis interpret another person's facial expressions that signal unpleasantne ss or interpersonal conflict.