Emotion Recognition In Schizophrenia Research Articles

Impact of psychosocial stress on facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia and controls: an experimental study in a forensic sample.

Psychotic disorders have been associated with dysregulated stress reactions and adaptation. Little is known about the neuroendocrine responses to psychosocial stress in justice-involved individuals with schizophrenia. Using an experimental research design, the present study aims to examine differences in the subjective and neuroendocrine responses to psychosocial stress and its impact on facial emotion recognition (FER) and performance on an arithmetic task in chronically ill justice-involved individuals with schizophrenia (PAT) and a healthy control group. PAT undergoing treatment in forensic psychiatric inpatient wards (n = 17) and a healthy control group (n = 17) were assessed regarding sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Additionally, salivary cortisol levels, measured before and after performing a psychosocial stress task [Montreal Imaging Stress Task (MIST)], and performance on an arithmetic problem-solving task and two FER tasks were recorded. Two participants dropped out, one from each group. Therefore, the final sample consisted of 32 individuals. Significant group differences in FER were recorded. There was a significant rise in subjective perception of momentary strain relating to the induction of psychosocial stress in both groups. Notably, the pre-stress level of subjective strain was higher in the PAT group than controls. Acute psychosocial stress induced an increase in FER performance in a sub-task related to naming emotions in individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorder. The results underline the importance of psychosocial and therapeutic interventions aimed at strengthening stress resilience in individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Uncinate fasciculus microstructural organisation and emotion recognition in schizophrenia: controlling for hit rate bias.

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by functional and structural brain dysconnectivity and disturbances in perception, cognition, emotion, and social functioning. In the present study, we investigated whether the microstructural organisation of the uncinate fasciculus (UF) was associated with emotion recognition (ER) performance. Additionally, we investigated the usefulness of an unbiased hit rate (UHR) score to control for response biases (i.e., participant guessing) during an emotion recognition task (ERT). Fifty-eight individuals diagnosed with SCZ were included. The CANTAB ERT was used to measure social cognition. Specific ROI manual tract segmentation was completed using ExploreDTI and followed the protocol previously outlined by Coad et al. (2020). We found that the microstructural organisation of the UF was significantly correlated with physical neglect and ER outcomes. Furthermore, we found that the UHR score was more sensitive to ERT subscale emotion items than the standard HR score. Finally, given the association between childhood trauma (in particular childhood neglect) and social cognition in SCZ, a mediation analysis found evidence that microstructural alterations of the UF mediated an association between childhood trauma and social cognitive performance. The mediating role of microstructural alterations in the UF on the association between childhood trauma and social cognitive performance suggests that early life adversity impacts both brain development and social cognitive outcomes for people with SCZ. Limitations of the present study include the restricted ability of the tensor model to correctly assess multi-directionality at regions where fibre populations intersect.

Corpus callosum microstructural organization mediates the effects of physical neglect on social cognition in schizophrenia

Exposure to early life adversity is associated with both increased risk of developing schizophrenia and poorer performance on measures of social cognitive functioning. In this study, we examined whether interleukin-6 (IL-6) and Corpus Callosum (CC) microstructure mediated the association between childhood physical neglect and social cognition. Fifty-eight patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia were included. The CANTAB emotion recognition task (unbiased hit rate) was used to assess social cognition. We found that the microstructural organization of the CC significantly mediated the association between physical neglect and emotion recognition. Furthermore, in a sequential mediation analysis that also considered the role of inflammatory response, the association between physical neglect, and lower emotion recognition performance was sequentially mediated by higher IL-6 and lower fractional anisotropy of the CC. This mediating effect of IL-6 was only present when simultaneously considering the effects of CC microstructural organization and remained significant while controlling for the effects of sex, BMI and medication dosage (but not age). Overall, the findings suggest that the association between physical neglect and poorer emotion recognition in schizophrenia occurs, at least in part, via its association with white matter microstructure.

Влияние генетического варианта риска шизофрении в локусе ZNF804A и наличия алкоголизма в родительской семье на дефицит распознавания эмоций при шизофрении

В последние десятилетия особое внимание при изучении шизофрении уделяется особенностям распознавания эмоций и влияния как генетических так и средовых факторов на развитие индивида и риск развития психических заболеваний. Существует предположение, что нарушения распознавания эмоций являются одним из эндофенотипов заболевания. Установлена важная роль нарушения социальных когниций, и, в частности, распознавания эмоций, в социальной адаптации больных шизофренией. Установление роли генетических и средовых факторов риска шизофрении в этих нарушениях является важным шагом к формированию терапевтических подходов к их коррекции. Цель - оценить связь полиморфизма rs1344706 гена ZNF804A и неблагоприятной среды в детстве (наличия алкоголизма в родительской семье) на распознавание эмоций у больных. Методы. Выборка состояла из 854 больных, разделенных на две группы: с алкоголизмом в родительской семье и без него. Для оценки распознавания мимической экспрессии эмоций использовали фотографии шести базовых и трех социальных эмоций. Генотипирование проводили методом HRM. Результаты. Обнаружен эффект взаимодействия между генетическим вариантом ZNF804A (rs1344706) и злоупотреблением алкоголем одним из родителей пробанда на нарушение распознавания эмоций (p=0,02). Больные с генотипом АА хуже распознавали эмоции, чем больные с генотипом СС. Заключение. Результаты позволяют предположить важную роль взаимодействия генов риска шизофрении, связанных с нейроразвитием, и ранних средовых стрессоров в аномалиях социальных когниций при шизофрении. Background. In recent decades, special attention in the study of schizophrenia has been paid to the features of emotion recognition and the influence of both genetic and environmental factors on the development of the individual and the risk of developing mental illness. There is an assumption that disorders of emotion recognition are one of the endophenotypes of the disease. The important role of the violation of social cognitions, and in particular the recognition of emotions, in the social adaptation of patients with schizophrenia has been established. Establishing the role of genetic and environmental risk factors for schizophrenia in these disorders is an important step towards the formation of therapeutic approaches to their correction. Aim - to assess the contribution of the rs1344706 polymorphism of the ZNF804A gene and an unfavorable environment in childhood (the presence of alcoholism in the parental family) to the recognition of emotions in patients. Methods. The sample consisted of 854 patients divided into two groups: with alcoholism in the parental family and without it. To assess the recognition of mimic expression of emotions, photographs of six basic and three social emotions were used. Genotyping was performed by the HRM method. Results. An interaction effect between the genetic variant ZNF804A (rs1344706) and alcohol abuse by one of the proband’s parents on impairment of emotion recognition was found (p=0.02). Patients with the AA genotype were worse at recognizing emotions than those with the CC genotype. Conclusion. The results suggest an important role for the interaction of neurodevelopmentally associated schizophrenia risk genes and early environmental stressors in social cognition anomalies in schizophrenia.

The association between cannabis use and facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia, siblings, and healthy controls: Results from the EUGEI study

Schizophrenia is frequently accompanied with social cognitive disturbances. Cannabis represents one established environmental factor associated with the onset and progression of schizophrenia. The present cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the association of facial emotion recognition (FER) performance with cannabis use in 2039 patients with schizophrenia, 2141 siblings, and 2049 healthy controls (HC). FER performance was measured using the Degraded Facial Affect Recognition Task (DFAR). Better FER performance as indicated by higher DFAR-total scores was associated with lifetime regular cannabis use in schizophrenia (B = 1.36, 95% CI 0.02 to 2.69), siblings (B = 2.17, 95% CI 0.79 to 3.56), and HC (B = 3.10, 95% CI 1.14 to 5.06). No associations were found between DFAR-total and current cannabis use. Patients with schizophrenia who started to use cannabis after the age of 16 showed better FER performance than patients who started earlier (B = 2.50, 95% CI 0.15 to 4.84) and non-users (B = 3.72, 95 CI 1.96 to 5.49). Better FER performance was found also in siblings who started to use cannabis after 16 compared to non-users (B = 2.37, 95% CI 0.58 to 4.16), while HC using cannabis performed better than non-users at DFAR-total regardless of the age at onset. Our findings suggest that lifetime regular cannabis use may be associated with better FER regardless of the psychosis risk, but that FER might be moderated by age at first use in people with higher genetic risk. Longitudinal studies may clarify whether there is a cause-and-effect relationship between cannabis use and FER performance in psychotic and non-psychotic samples.

Consequence of the magnocellular dysfunction on processing facial affect recognition in Schizophrenia

IntroductionMagnocellular deficit in visual perception and impaired emotion recognition are core features of schizophrenia, however their relationship and the neurobiological underpinnings are still unclear.ObjectivesThe aim of our research was to investigate the oscillatory background of perception and emotion recognition in schizophrenia and to examine the relationship between these processes.MethodsThirty-nine subjects with schizophrenia and forty healthy controls subjects were enrolled in the study; the two study groups did not differ in age, gender and education. In the visual paradigm the participants viewed magnocellular biased low-spatial frequency (LSF) and parvocellular biased high-spatial frequency (HSF) Gabor-patches and in the second paradigm happy, sad and neutral faces were presented, while 128-channel EEG was recorded.ResultsSignificantly weaker theta (4-7 Hz) event related synchronisation (ERS) was observed in patients compared to controls in the LSF condition, whereas in the HSF condition there was no difference between the two groups. Event related changes in theta amplitude were also found to be significantly weaker in patients compared to healthy controls in the emotion recognition task, which difference was disappeared after correction for ERS to LSF condition. In the correlational analysis theta activity in the magnocellular biased stimuli correlated significantly with theta activity in the emotion recognition task, while theta to parvocellular biased stimuli showed no similar correlation with emotion recognition.ConclusionsIn schizophrenia, emotion recognition impairments are closely related to the dysfunction of the magnocellular system, which supports the bottom-up model of schizophrenia.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

Effects of Oxytocin on Emotion Recognition in Schizophrenia: A Randomized Double-Blind Pilot Study.

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that leads to poor social function. Oxytocin (OXT), a neuropeptide involved in social cognition, is a potential therapeutic agent for alleviating social dysfunction. Therefore, we investigated the effects of intranasal oxytocin (IN-OXT) on emotional processes in experimental interactive social contexts in individuals with SCZ. In a male-only parallel randomized placebo-controlled double-blind trial, we investigated the effects of IN-OXT (24 IU) on visual fixation on pictures of faces and emotion recognition in an interactive ball-tossing game that probed processing of social and nonsocial stimuli. Intranasal oxytocin enhanced the recognition of emotions during an emotion-based ball-tossing game. This improvement was specific to the game that included social cue processing. Intranasal oxytocin did not affect eye gaze duration or gaze dwell time on faces in these patients. An acute low dose of IN-OXT had a modest effect on social cue processing and was limited to emotion recognition. Higher doses and long-term trials targeting emotional processing in SCZ may lead to improved social function.

Emotion recognition in patients with schizophrenia: The role of sex.

Despite the abundant research on emotion recognition in schizophrenia, there are still some issues about which there is no conclusive data. The present study examined one these issues: the role that sex plays in emotion recognition. The sample consisted of 440 participants, 220 patients with schizophrenia and 220 controls. Measures of the six basic emotions, psychopathology, and cognitive functioning were taken. The data were analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance. Controls perceived all emotions, except happiness, better than patients. In the patient group three main results were obtained: 1) men recognized disgust and neutral expressions better than women; 2) happiness and sadness were better recognized on female faces, while disgust and neutral expressions were better recognized on male faces; and 3) a significant interaction was seen between the stimulus sex and the participant sex only for the fear emotion. The results obtained support the hypothesis that deficits in the recognition of emotions is a core feature of schizophrenia that affects both men and women to the same extent. There is no clear pattern of interaction between the sex of the perceiver and the sex of the photograph used as a stimulus.

P.069 Preliminary results from a comparison of facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia and Alzheimer's Disease, and relationship with social withdrawal

P.069 Preliminary results from a comparison of facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia and Alzheimer's Disease, and relationship with social withdrawal

From basic perception deficits to facial affect recognition impairments in schizophrenia

While impaired facial emotion recognition and magnocellular deficits in visual perception are core features of schizophrenia, their relationship is still unclear. Our aim was to analyze the oscillatory background of these processes and to investigate the connection between the magnocellular pathway deficit and the abnormal facial affect processing. Thirty-nine subjects with schizophrenia and forty socially matched healthy controls subjects were enrolled. A 128 channel EEG was recorded in three experimental tasks: first, participants viewed magnocellular biased low-spatial frequency (LSF) and parvocellular biased high-spatial frequency (HSF) Gabor-patches, then faces and houses were presented and in the third task a facial affect recognition task was presented with happy, sad and neutral faces. Event-related theta (4–7 Hz) synchronization (ERS) (i.e. an increase in theta power) by magnocellular biased stimuli was decreased in patients relative to controls, while no similar differences were found between groups in the parvocellular biased condition. ERS was significantly lower in patients compared to healthy controls both in the face and in the emotion recognition task. Theta ERS to magnocellular biased stimuli, but not to parvocellular biased stimuli, were correlated with emotion recognition performance. These findings indicate a bottom up disruption of face perception and emotion recognition in schizophrenia.

Decoupling of spontaneous facial mimicry from emotion recognition in schizophrenia

Past research indicates that spontaneous mimicry facilitates the decoding of others’ emotions, leading to enhanced social perception and interpersonal rapport. Individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) show consistent deficits in emotion recognition and expression associated with poor social functioning. Given the prominence of blunted affect in schizophrenia, it is possible that spontaneous facial mimicry may also be impaired. However, studies assessing automatic facial mimicry in schizophrenia have yielded mixed results. It is therefore unknown whether emotion recognition deficits and impaired automatic facial mimicry are related in schizophrenia. SZ and demographically matched controls (CO) participated in a dynamic emotion recognition task. Electromyographic activity in muscles responsible for producing facial expressions was recorded during the task to assess spontaneous facial mimicry. SZ showed deficits in emotion identification compared to CO, but there was no group difference in the predictive power of spontaneous facial mimicry for avatar's expressed emotion. In CO, facial mimicry supported accurate emotion recognition, but it was decoupled in SZ. The finding of intact facial mimicry in SZ bears important clinical implications. For instance, clinicians might be able to improve the social functioning of patients by teaching them to pair specific patterns of facial muscle activation with distinct emotion words.

Improving emotion recognition in schizophrenia with "VOICES": An on-line prosodic self-training.

IntroductionEmotion recognition (ER) deficits have been extensively demonstrated in schizophrenia. These deficiencies are not only restricted to facial emotion recognition but also include emotional prosody (tone of the voice) recognition deficits. They have been significantly associated with symptom severity and poor social functioning. The aim of this study was to test the efficacy, in real clinical conditions, of an online self-training prosodic game included in the Social Cognition rehabilitation program e-Motional Training.MethodA randomized, single-blind multicenter clinical trial was conducted with 50 outpatients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. The control group was treated with Treatment-as-usual (TAU), based on drug therapy, case management and individual and group psychotherapy (not focused on Social Cognition). The intervention group was treated with TAU plus the employment of Voices, an online self-training program devised for prosodic rehabilitation.Statistical analysisLinear regression was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention in emotion recognition measured with the Reading the Mind in the Voice–Spanish Version (RMV-SV).ResultsThere were statistically significant differences between the intervention and control group measured with RMV-SV (β = 3,6[IC 95%], p<0.001), with a response variable in RMV post R2 = 0,617.DiscussionVoices, a prosodic rehabilitation game included in e-Motional Training, seems to be a promising tool for improving emotional voice recognition deficits in schizophrenia, filling the need for such interventions.

Basic auditory processing deficits and their association with auditory emotion recognition in schizophrenia

BackgroundIndividuals with schizophrenia are impaired in their ability to recognize emotions based on vocal cues and these impairments are associated with poor global outcome. Basic perceptual processes, such as auditory pitch processing, are impaired in schizophrenia and contribute to difficulty identifying emotions. However, previous work has focused on a relatively narrow assessment of auditory deficits and their relation to emotion recognition impairment in schizophrenia. MethodsWe have assessed 87 patients with schizophrenia and 73 healthy controls on a comprehensive battery of tasks spanning the five empirically derived domains of auditory function. We also explored the relationship between basic auditory processing and auditory emotion recognition within the patient group using correlational analysis. ResultsPatients exhibited widespread auditory impairments across multiple domains of auditory function, with mostly medium effect sizes. Performance on all of the basic auditory tests correlated with auditory emotion recognition at the p < .01 level in the patient group, with 9 out of 13 tests correlating with emotion recognition at r = 0.40 or greater. After controlling for cognition, many of the largest correlations involved spectral processing within the phase-locking range and discrimination of vocally based stimuli. ConclusionsWhile many auditory skills contribute to this impairment, deficient formant discrimination appears to be a key skill contributing to impaired emotion recognition as this was the only basic auditory skill to enter a step-wise multiple regression after first entering a measure of cognitive impairment, and formant discrimination accounted for significant unique variance in emotion recognition performance after accounting for deficits in pitch processing.

T205. CHANGES IN SOCIAL ATTENTION AND EMOTION RECOGNITION FOLLOWING A PILOT SOCIAL SIMULATION COMPUTER GAME INTERVENTION FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA

BackgroundIndividuals with schizophrenia (SZ) exhibit significant difficulties processing and perceiving socioemotional information conveyed by others. Increasing evidence suggests that SZ deficits in facial emotion recognition, in particular, contribute to impaired daily social functioning. Studies show that improving SZ patients’ visual attention to socially-relevant facial areas (eyes, nose, mouth) with targeted computer interventions will ameliorate deficits in emotion recognition. We tested whether 10 sessions of a novel, VR-based social simulation computer game would indirectly improve facial emotion recognition in SZ, and additionally whether potential gains were associated with changes in gaze patterns.MethodsFifteen SZ outpatients completed a social simulation computer game intervention involving a pre-training visit, 10 training sessions scheduled approximately twice per week (days until completion: M=38.8, SD=16), and a post-training visit. During training sessions, participants played a novel, adaptive VR-based computer game that involved approaching and engaging in conversations with various Avatar game characters across several naturalistic settings (a bus stop, café, grocery store). Each game session required completion of 12 “social missions” to determine information about different characters (e.g., food preference), achieved by selecting the appropriate conversational prompts and follow-up questions from multiple options. At pre- and post-training visits, emotion recognition was assessed with a novel dynamic facial affect recognition task (DFAR) and the Bell Lysaker Emotion Recognition Task (BLERT). During the DFAR, participants viewed adult Avatar characters (50% female) making one of 8 dynamic facial expressions (anger, sadness, fear, disgust, joy, surprise, contempt) while gaze data and behavioral responses were recorded. The VR-based computer game and DFAR were developed in-house with Autodesk Maya 3D animation and Unity software (unity3d.com).ResultsPatients’ emotion recognition accuracy (BLERT) significantly improved from pre- to post-training. Patients’ accuracy on the facial affect recognition task (DFAR) also significantly improved following training for specific negative emotions (anger, contempt, fear, and sadness). Regarding changes in visual attention, patients made overall fewer fixations at post-training (fixation duration threshold = 200ms) across relevant social areas (eyes, nose, mouth) when viewing emotional Avatar faces compared to pre-training. A general reduction in fixations was not accompanied by an increase in mean fixation duration. Rather, shorter fixation durations were positively associated with DFAR performance accuracy.DiscussionSZ patients’ participation in a novel, VR-based computerized social simulation training may yield indirect benefits in emotion recognition. Specifically, patients exhibited improvements on a validated assessment of emotion perception (BLERT) following the 10-session computer training. A decrease in the number of fixations on socially-informative facial regions during Avatars’ emotion expression on the DFAR may indicate an increased efficiency in scanning for socioemotional information. Though much work remains in probing the exact nature of treatment mechanism and durability of these improvements, these promising initial results demonstrate the potential of an VR-based computer game for improving core deficits in social cognition.

Facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia: An exploratory study on the role of comorbid alcohol and substance use disorders and COMT Val158Met.

To explore whether facial emotion recognition (FER), impaired in both schizophrenia and alcohol and substance use disorders (AUDs/SUDs), is additionally compromised among comorbid subjects, also considering the role of catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met. We conducted a cross-sectional study, randomly recruiting 67 subjects with a DSM-IV-TR diagnosis of schizophrenia, and rigorously assessing AUDs/SUDs and COMT Val158Met polymorphism. FER was assessed using the Ekman 60 Faces Test- EK-60F. As a whole, the sample scored significantly lower than normative data on EK-60F. However, subjects with comorbid AUDs/SUDs did not perform worse on EK-60F than those without, who had a better performance on EK-60F if they carried the COMT Val/Met variant. This study is the first to date examining the impact of AUDs/SUDs and COMT variants on FER in an epidemiologically representative sample of subjects with schizophrenia. Our findings do not suggest an additional impairment from comorbid AUDs/SUDs on FER among subjects with schizophrenia, whilst COMT Val158Met, though based on a limited sample, might have a role just among those without AUDs/SUDs. Based on our results, additional research is needed also exploring differential roles of various substances.

Electromyographic activity of the quadriceps muscles in patients with stiff-knee gait (SKG) after stroke

Schizophrenia patients have impaired performance and abnormal brain activation during facial emotion recognition, which may represent a marker of genetic liability to schizophrenia. However, it remains unclear whether the impairment is specific to recognizing emotion from faces or is instead attributable to more generalized dysfunction. The current study aimed to distinguish between specific and generalized neural dysfunction underlying impaired facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia and examine associations with genetic liability. Twenty-eight schizophrenia patients, 27 nonpsychotic first-degree relatives, and 27 community controls underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while making judgments about either the emotion or age of emotional faces. Patients had performance deficits during the emotion and age discrimination conditions compared to relatives and controls, while relatives had intact performance. Patients had hypoactivation compared to controls across conditions, mainly in medial prefrontal cortex. Unlike controls, patients demonstrated a failure to recruit the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, a region involved in social cognition and decision-making, and relatives had a pattern of recruitment intermediate between patients and controls. Compared to controls, relatives had greater deactivation of regions associated with the default mode network, and patients had similar findings during age discrimination. The common patterns of performance deficits and activation abnormalities during emotion and age discrimination in schizophrenia suggest that generalized cognitive impairment, notably in social cognition and decision-making, contributes to impaired facial emotion recognition. Similar functional activation patterns in relatives, despite intact performance, suggest that brain activation may represent a more sensitive marker of genetic liability than behaviour. Hyperdeactivation of default mode network regions in relatives may represent cognitive inefficiency, or compensatory mechanisms that help maintain intact performance.

143. Effects of Oxytocin on Neural Response to Facial Emotion Recognition in Schizophrenia

143. Effects of Oxytocin on Neural Response to Facial Emotion Recognition in Schizophrenia

Configural and Featural Face Processing Influences on Emotion Recognition in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder.

Emotion recognition impairments have been demonstrated in schizophrenia (Sz), but are less consistent and lesser in magnitude in bipolar disorder (BD). This may be related to the extent to which different face processing strategies are engaged during emotion recognition in each of these disorders. We recently showed that Sz patients had impairments in the use of both featural and configural face processing strategies, whereas BD patients were impaired only in the use of the latter. Here we examine the influence that these impairments have on facial emotion recognition in these cohorts. Twenty-eight individuals with Sz, 28 individuals with BD, and 28 healthy controls completed a facial emotion labeling task with two conditions designed to separate the use of featural and configural face processing strategies; part-based and whole-face emotion recognition. Sz patients performed worse than controls on both conditions, and worse than BD patients on the whole-face condition. BD patients performed worse than controls on the whole-face condition only. Configural processing deficits appear to influence the recognition of facial emotions in BD, whereas both configural and featural processing abnormalities impair emotion recognition in Sz. This may explain discrepancies in the profiles of emotion recognition between the disorders. (JINS, 2017, 23, 287-291).

Similar patterns of brain activation abnormalities during emotional and non-emotional judgments of faces in a schizophrenia family study

Schizophrenia patients have impaired performance and abnormal brain activation during facial emotion recognition, which may represent a marker of genetic liability to schizophrenia. However, it remains unclear whether the impairment is specific to recognizing emotion from faces or is instead attributable to more generalized dysfunction. The current study aimed to distinguish between specific and generalized neural dysfunction underlying impaired facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia and examine associations with genetic liability. Twenty-eight schizophrenia patients, 27 nonpsychotic first-degree relatives, and 27 community controls underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while making judgments about either the emotion or age of emotional faces. Patients had performance deficits during the emotion and age discrimination conditions compared to relatives and controls, while relatives had intact performance. Patients had hypoactivation compared to controls across conditions, mainly in medial prefrontal cortex. Unlike controls, patients demonstrated a failure to recruit the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, a region involved in social cognition and decision-making, and relatives had a pattern of recruitment intermediate between patients and controls. Compared to controls, relatives had greater deactivation of regions associated with the default mode network, and patients had similar findings during age discrimination. The common patterns of performance deficits and activation abnormalities during emotion and age discrimination in schizophrenia suggest that generalized cognitive impairment, notably in social cognition and decision-making, contributes to impaired facial emotion recognition. Similar functional activation patterns in relatives, despite intact performance, suggest that brain activation may represent a more sensitive marker of genetic liability than behaviour. Hyperdeactivation of default mode network regions in relatives may represent cognitive inefficiency, or compensatory mechanisms that help maintain intact performance.

Improving Facial Emotion Recognition in Schizophrenia: a Controlled Study Comparing Specific and Attentional Focused Cognitive Remediation.

Cognitive impairments associated with schizophrenia are very frequent. They concern both neurocognition and social cognition, including facial emotion recognition. These impairments have a negative impact on the daily functioning, in particular the social and vocational rehabilitation of people with schizophrenia. Previous studies in this area clearly demonstrated the interest of cognitive remediation to improve neurocognitive and social cognitive functioning in schizophrenia. They also established clear links between facial emotion recognition skills and attentional processes. The present study compares the GAÏA s-face program (GAÏA arm), which focuses on facial emotion recognition processes, with the RECOS program (RECOS arm), a neurocognitive remediation therapy focusing on selective attention. Forty people with schizophrenia were randomly distributed between each study arm and assessed pre- (T1) and post- (T2) therapy. The single-blind assessment focused on facial emotion recognition (the main criteria), symptoms, social and subjective functioning, and neurocognitive and social cognitive performance. Both programs were conducted by nurses after a 3-day training session. The study showed a significant improvement in facial emotion recognition performance in both groups, with a significantly larger effect in the GAÏA arm. Symptoms and social functioning also improved in the GAÏA arm, and certain neurocognitive and social cognitive processes improved in both study arms. Further studies are recommended, with larger population samples and a follow-up assessing the long-term preservation of these improvements.