Impairment of Autonoetic Awareness for Emotional Events in Schizophrenia

Abstract

To investigate the subjective states of awareness accompanying recognition of emotional events in patients with schizophrenia. During the learning phase, a set of neutral pictures associated with emotional sentences was presented to 24 patients with schizophrenia and 24 healthy control subjects. During the test phase, participants had to recognize target pictures and valence and to report their subjective state of awareness (Remember, Know, or Guess) associated with recognition of pictures and valence. Patients with schizophrenia exhibited poor recognition of pictures and emotional valence. The frequency of Remember responses associated with recognition of pictures and of valence was lower in patients than in control subjects. Autonoetic awareness for emotional events is reduced in schizophrenia, with patients presenting difficulties in consciously recollecting the specific details that make events emotional.