Creation of a New Differentiation Method for Major Depressive Disorder and Bipolar Disorder Focusing on Facial Cognition

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K08020
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 52030:Psychiatry-related
• Research Institution: Hiroshima University
• Principal Investigator: Erabi Hisayuki 広島大学, 病院(医), 助教 (20790067)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: うつ状態 / 情動バイアス / 表情認識

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Emotional bias task using 7 levels of facial expression stimulus of joy-sadness, and emotion recognition task using 8 levels of intense stimulus images for 6 facial expressions were created. The performances of these tasks were compared between high depression group and low depression group. As a result, it was clarified that the ability of the high depression group to recognize the facial expression of joy was significantly lower than that of the low depression group. It was suggested that the emotion recognition task using the facial expression of joy may be useful for the evaluation of depression.

Free Research Field

医歯薬学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

うつ病は異種性が高い症候群であることが知られており、双極性障害の鑑別も含めて、うつ状態の客観的鑑別診断法の開発が必要とされている。先行研究より、表情認識と関連した脳機能がうつ病と双極性障害の病態と関連することが示唆されている。本研究により、喜びの表情を用いた表情認識課題による情動認知機能の客観的測定がうつ状態の評価に有用であるという予備的な結果を得ることができた。