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MDMA/face processing

Jabberwocky

Frumious Bandersnatch
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The acute and sub-acute effects of ‘ecstasy’ (MDMA) on processing of facial expressions: preliminary findings

LINK

Rosa Hoshi, , Jatinder Bisla and H. Valerie Curran

Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit, Sub-Department of Clinical Health Psychology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK

Received 6 April 2004; revised 25 June 2004; accepted 30 June 2004. Available online 26 August 2004.



Abstract
Rationale: There is evidence that serotonergic processes may modulate the processing of fearful facial expressions. It is therefore possible that the recreational drug ‘ecstasy’ (MDMA), which has marked serotonergic effects, may affect people's ability to recognise human facial expressions portraying fear.

Objective: The present study therefore aimed to determine whether ecstasy users differed from controls in fear recognition at two time points: shortly after taking the drug and a few days later.

Methods: Sixteen ecstasy users and 21 controls were compared on a facial expression recognition task involving the 6 basic emotions (happiness, surprise, sadness, anger, fear and disgust) and on self-ratings of mood on the night of drug use (day 0) and 4 days later (day 4).

Results: In recognising fearful facial expressions, ecstasy users were more accurate than controls on day 0 but less accurate than them on day 4 when compared with their overall ability to recognise other basic emotions. Accuracy of fear recognition on day 4 was negatively correlated with both years of ecstasy use and number of ecstasy tablets taken on a typical session. On self-rated aggression scales, ecstasy users scored lower than controls on day 0 and higher on day 4.

Conclusions: These results support the notion that 5-HT plays a role in modulating the recognition of fearful facial expressions. Increased accuracy of fear recognition may relate to 5-HT release following ecstasy use on day 0, and decreased accuracy may reflect subsequent depletion of 5-HT mid-week.

Keywords: MDMA; Ecstasy; Serotonin; Fear recognition; Facial expressions
 
A slightly different processing fault

After reading the article referred to by Sebastians_ghost, it reminded me of one effect that I get from MDxx drugs, and certain others with a fairly high degree of entactogen activity, such as AMT (this is purely subjective)

I've been in a club, on a night out, where me and my other half have arranged to meet people there, and found that at a distance, I'll see the face of someone I know, and will begin walking towards them. Then, quite suddenly at about the same distance each time, it feels like the recognition points on somebody's face will assume different degrees of importance, and I'll suddenly realize that the person I'd been making eye contact with, and been striding towards, is somebody I've never seen before (or maybe only seen a couple of times in that club).

It must look really strange to the other person, for somebody's body language to totally change in a very short time, and that person to suddenly veer off to one side. AMT is the worst for me (probably because of the degree of visual effects); on one night I remember vividly, I'd gone up to 3 different people, veering off at the last moment until I eventually found my friend. He remebered what my first words were, because of the strange/hesitant way I approached him. He was met with a, "thank fuck it's still you, and your face didn't change at the last moment".

Since I've mentioned it, a couple of other people have admitted that they've had the same experience
 
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Noticed this too. Many times have gone up to the wrong people. Might be due to MDA levels...

Also i notice the day after. If i look at random people on the street i can see an fear in everyones faces. . (sometime suggesting to friends that everyone is on the same comedown).. This may be due to the comedown..

This test doesn't seem conclusive as anyone on the 4th day(my blue Tuesday￾fs) would not be up for recognizing facial expressions as accurately as your tea totaler?
 
I have had this on mdma and mda - recognising people and then realising they're not who i thought they were...

during one particular difficult period of my life, fairly short time after first discovering the e world and its resonannct deeper 'meanings' , I "recognised" lots of strangers. This was a time when I felt a bit lost anyway and had just moved to a new place, and the faces were all of people whom Iknew could not possibly be there (as they lived where I was before) . . .
 
^Up had it right. I'm not sure if it's so much mistaking people's faces for someone else's, as it is the interpretation of emotion. If you think about the profound way in which ecstasy works and makes you feel in regards to others and the world around you, then it would make sense that everyone could look sad or scared in the days following an MDMA experience. The world is an ugly place and I've always felt that that ecstasy acts as a "blanket" over a world gone wrong around us. It shows us how things could be ideally, but are not.

my point: Facial expressions of sadness, fear, or dissatisfaction are subjective to how one person views them. Therefore, in a world where we have learned to tolerate the afforementioned emotional states in a sober state on a daily basis, mild expressions of fear, sadness, or dissatisfaction would seem to register as neutral (not happy, not sad, just whatever) expressions. MDMA specifically induces an extreme mood lift and feeling of universal happiness and connection, where everything around us seems better than it usually seems. I actually find it hard to believe not everyone feels the same as I do while I'm rolling. So after coming down, your perfect illusion of the world has been replaced by the shithole, that is earth. And by comparison, now everyone looks even less happy, secure, or comfortable (like Up said, "everyone coming down day"). It's an issue of contrast, not changes in brain function.
 
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