Facial Emotion Recognition in Anorexia Nervosa (FER_AN)

August 20, 2025 updated by: Istituto Auxologico Italiano
Altered emotional processing is reported in Anorexia Nervosa. However, this capability is generally measured through explicit measures, like self-report questionnaires and facial emotion recognition tasks. Instead, no previous research has investigated implicit emotional processing in this clinical condition. In the implicit facial emotion recognition task grounded on the implicit "redundant target effect", individuals generally respond faster when two identical targets are presented simultaneously rather than when presented alone; moreover, the competitive presence of a distractor (that is another emotion or a neutral expression) affects the correct recognition of the target. The ability to recognize and detect facial expressions is explored about two main emotions, fear and anger, because of their role in the intra- and interindividual psychological processing.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

40

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Italy
    • VCO
      • Piancavallo, VCO, Italy, 28824
        • IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano - Ospedale San Giuseppe

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Participants with anorexia nervosa will be recruited at the beginning of a rehabilitative treatment at the Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, San Giuseppe Hospital (Italy). Controls will be recruited out of the hospital.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • right-handed
  • diagnosis of Anorexia Nervosa according to the APA criteria

Exclusion criteria:

- concurrent neurological, neurodevelopmental (e.g., autism), motor, somatosensory and/or psychiatric disorders.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Cases
Participants with Anorexia Nervosa
Other: Facial Emotion Recognition Test
In this test, the ability to detect and recognize facial expressions of fear or anger will be investigated.
Controls
Participants with a healthy weight
Other: Facial Emotion Recognition Test
In this test, the ability to detect and recognize facial expressions of fear or anger will be investigated.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Behavioural measure relative to recognition ability
Time Frame: baseline
Level of accuracy expressed in percentage (min =%; max = 100%) about only the valid trails, in the case of emotion used as target.
baseline

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Behavioural measure relative to the detection ability
Time Frame: baseline
Reaction time (i.e., time of response from the onset of the visual stimulus) expressed in milliseconds relative to the valid response for the targeted emotion
baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Istituto Auxologico Italiano

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

February 1, 2023

Primary Completion (Actual)

February 1, 2024

Study Completion (Actual)

February 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 28, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 6, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

March 7, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

August 27, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 20, 2025

Last Verified

August 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 21C306

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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