Processing of Emotions in Speech in Forensic Patients With Schizophrenia: Impairments in Identification, Selective Attention, and Integration of Speech Channels.

Rotem Leshem,Michal Icht,Roni Bentzur,Boaz M Ben-David

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2020.601763

Abstract

Individuals with schizophrenia show deficits in recognition of emotions which may increase the risk of violence. This study explored how forensic patients with schizophrenia process spoken emotion by: (a) identifying emotions expressed in prosodic and semantic content separately, (b) selectively attending to one speech channel while ignoring the other, and (c) integrating the prosodic and the semantic channels, compared to non-clinical controls. Twenty-one forensic patients with schizophrenia and 21 matched controls listened to sentences conveying four emotions (anger, happiness, sadness, and neutrality) presented in semantic or prosodic channels, in different combinations. They were asked to rate how much they agreed that the sentences conveyed a predefined emotion, focusing on one channel or on the sentence as a whole. Forensic patients with schizophrenia performed with intact identification and integration of spoken emotions, but their ratings indicated reduced discrimination, larger failures of selective attention, and under-ratings of negative emotions, compared to controls. This finding doesn't support previous reports of an inclination to interpret social situations in a negative way among individuals with schizophrenia. Finally, current results may guide rehabilitation approaches matched to the pattern of auditory emotional processing presented by forensic patients with schizophrenia, improving social interactions and quality of life.

Highlights

Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that involves a wide range of deficits in cognitive, perceptual, and emotional processes [1,2,3,4,5]
The first analysis tested whether both groups could correctly identify emotions in the prosody and semantic channels, respectively
The present study aimed to examine the processing of emotions in spoken language in violent offenders diagnosed with schizophrenia

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that involves a wide range of deficits in cognitive, perceptual, and emotional processes [1,2,3,4,5]. The current study aimed to test, for the first time, the perception of emotions in spoken language in people diagnosed with schizophrenia who committed severe violent offenses To this end, the Test of Rating of Emotions in Speech [T-RES, [41]] was used to separately gauge the apprehension of semantics and prosody, and their relative roles in processing of spoken emotions, as depicted in Figures 1, 2. Integration of Channels In light of missing evidence in the literature, a hypothesis was not made as to whether forensic patients with schizophrenia would be less biased to the prosodic channel than controls when asked to integrate both prosodic and semantic channels

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Participants

Procedure

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

ETHICS STATEMENT