Abstract
BackgroundThis study aimed to explore the characteristics of event-related potentials induced by facial emotion recognition in patients with first-episode schizophrenia and in their siblings.MethodsIn this case-control study, 30 first-episode schizophrenia patients, 26 siblings, and 30 healthy controls were enrolled. They completed facial emotion recognition tasks from the Ekman Standard Faces Database as an induction for evoked potentials. Evoked potential data were obtained using a 64-channel electroencephalography system. Average evoked potential waveforms were computed from epochs for each stimulus type. The amplitudes and latency of the event-related potentials for P100 (positive potential 100 ms after stimulus onset), N170 (negative potential 170 ms after stimulus onset), and N250 (fronto-central peak) were investigated at O1, O2, P7, and P8 electrode locations.ResultsThere were significant differences between the groups for P100 amplitude (F = 11.526, P < 0.001), electrode position (F = 450.592, P < 0.001), emotion (disgust vs. happiness vs. fear) (F = 1722.467, P < 0.001), and emotion intensity (low vs. moderate vs. high) (F = 1737.169, P < 0.001). Post hoc analysis showed significantly larger amplitudes in the schizophrenia group at the O1, O2, P7, and P8 electrode positions. There were no significant differences between the siblings of schizophrenia patients and the healthy controls.ConclusionsPatients with schizophrenia showed abnormalities in P100 amplitude, but similar results were not observed in their siblings. These results provide evidence of dysfunctional event-related potential patterns underlying facial emotion processing in patients with schizophrenia. P100 may be a characteristic index of schizophrenia.
Highlights
This study aimed to explore the characteristics of event-related potentials induced by facial emotion recognition in patients with first-episode schizophrenia and in their siblings
Studies of emotion processing have shifted their focus from schizophrenic patients to persons at risk of the disease, in order to try to determine whether emotion perception abilities represent an endophenotypic marker related to the risk of schizophrenia [9]
Siblings of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia have an increased risk of schizophrenia compared to healthy controls [10], but few studies have examined whether they exhibit differences in facial emotion recognition deficits
Summary
This study aimed to explore the characteristics of event-related potentials induced by facial emotion recognition in patients with first-episode schizophrenia and in their siblings. Impairments in facial emotion recognition and social cognition that underlies social interactions, which include emotion processing, theory of. Studies of emotion processing have shifted their focus from schizophrenic patients to persons at risk of the disease, in order to try to determine whether emotion perception abilities represent an endophenotypic marker related to the risk of schizophrenia [9]. Siblings of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia have an increased risk of schizophrenia compared to healthy controls [10], but few studies have examined whether they exhibit differences in facial emotion recognition deficits. Differences between siblings and control populations may be hard to detect using conventional methods [11, 12]
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