Although emotional responsivity applies to nonclinical populations, it is more typically associated with individuals with schizophrenia and autism.
Studies show correlations between measures of joint attention, emotional contagion, and the severity of autism.
[6] Schizophrenia impacts emotional responsivity by reducing a person’s hedonic capacity and producing a blunted affect.
A potential explanation is that TBI damages the ventral surfaces of the frontal and temporal lobes, which are areas associated with emotional processing.
The study suggests that when exposed to math-related stimuli, amygdala activity increases in participants' brain, which lowers the threshold of responding to a potential threat.
The study suggests that math anxiety resembles other types of phobia in that there is increased vigilance and responsivity to specific stimuli.
A study showed that people with high PTSD severity abuse much more substances than others and have difficulties controlling their emotions.
The results demonstrate that compared to the control group, cocaine-exposed infants have decreased emotional responsivity, as they exhibit fewer expressions of joy, interest, surprise, anger, and sadness.
Specifically, the cocaine-exposed group has reduced response to positive affective stimuli, suggesting that cocaine-exposure during pregnancy decreases feelings of joyfulness.
[11] Alcohol consumption impairs affective processing and therefore leads to abnormal responses to environmental stimuli.
Studies suggest that social interaction, especially at home, can influence the way a child responds to emotional stimuli.
Doctors today are using neuroimaging to connect the relationship between sleep and neural mechanisms that cause emotional responsively in children.
These studies resulted, "In general, the largest and most extensive sleep-related correlations for any emotion were found for disgust expressions".