Hsu Ching-Fen, Lv Pei
Laboratory for Language Pathology and Developmental Neurosciences, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China.
School of Foreign Languages, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China.
Brain Sci. 2023 Mar 9;13(3):467. doi: 10.3390/brainsci13030467.
Emotion categories configure the basic semantic knowledge of the human cognitive structure. Previous studies with people with Williams syndrome (WS) investigated their ability to process basic emotions and the dimensions of emotional valences. However, little is known about the categorization of emotions from the subordinate perspective of lexical words in people with WS. In this study, emotion priming was used as the research paradigm. Three types of emotional valence were used as stimuli: positive, neutral, and negative. Each emotional valence was used as a prime matched to a target in one of these same three types of emotional valence. All participants were asked to judge whether the prime and the target were matched in their emotional valence. People with WS (n = 14, 11M/3F, CA = 10.49, and MA = 6.57) showed priming patterns for emotion valences like those of the typically developing controls. When positive primes were presented, accuracy was higher for positive and negative targets than neutral targets. When neutral primes were presented, accuracy was highest for negative targets. When negative primes were presented, accuracy was the lowest for negative targets. All participants showed high priming accuracy for positive emotions; however, they confused neutral with positive targets. A negative priming effect was observed when negative primes preceded negative targets. Considering previous findings that people with WS show developmental delays in the basic emotions of and , this study concludes that people with WS responded least accurately to the classification of emotional valence. The findings regarding the categorization of emotions in people with WS not only advance our understanding of their emotion knowledge and socioemotional cognition but also confirm the superficial enrichment of lexical semantics with weak conceptual change in people with WS. This weakness may result in impaired contextual integration in people with WS.
情绪类别构成了人类认知结构的基本语义知识。先前针对威廉姆斯综合征（WS）患者的研究调查了他们处理基本情绪和情绪效价维度的能力。然而，对于WS患者从词汇层面的从属角度对情绪进行分类的情况却知之甚少。在本研究中，情绪启动被用作研究范式。使用了三种情绪效价类型作为刺激：积极、中性和消极。每种情绪效价都用作启动刺激，并与同属这三种情绪效价类型之一的目标刺激相匹配。所有参与者都被要求判断启动刺激和目标刺激在情绪效价上是否匹配。WS患者（n = 14，11名男性/3名女性，实际年龄 = 10.49岁，心理年龄 = 6.57岁）表现出与典型发育对照组相似的情绪效价启动模式。当呈现积极启动刺激时，对积极和消极目标的准确率高于中性目标。当呈现中性启动刺激时，对消极目标的准确率最高。当呈现消极启动刺激时，对消极目标的准确率最低。所有参与者对积极情绪都表现出较高的启动准确率；然而，他们会将中性目标与积极目标混淆。当消极启动刺激先于消极目标呈现时，观察到了负启动效应。鉴于先前的研究发现WS患者在某些基本情绪方面存在发育迟缓，本研究得出结论，WS患者对情绪效价分类的反应准确率最低。关于WS患者情绪分类的研究结果不仅增进了我们对他们情绪知识和社会情绪认知的理解，也证实了WS患者词汇语义的表面丰富但概念变化微弱的情况。这种弱点可能导致WS患者的情境整合受损。
