Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Facial affect recognition in the course of schizophrenia

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Deficits in facial affect recognition have been shown repeatedly in schizophrenia. However, the stability of this deficit over time remains to be clarified. A total of 36 remitted, 32 acutely ill schizophrenic patients and 21 healthy volunteers participated in a cross-sectional and longitudinal study. All subjects were assessed twice within 4 weeks (acute schizophrenics and normal controls), or 12 weeks, respectively (remitted schizophrenics). Subjects had to identify six basic emotions from corresponding facial expressions shown as photographs on a video screen. Both acute and remitted schizophrenics demonstrated a stable deficit over time in facial affect recognition unrelated to psychopathology and medication. This suggests that deficits in facial affect recognition in schizophrenia reflect a trait-like, rather than a state-dependent, characteristic.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Addington J, Addington D, Atkinson M (1994) Facial affect recognition in schizophrenia. Poster at the meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, Philadelphia

  • Allison T, Ginter H, McCarthy G, Nobre AC, Puce A, Luby M, Spencer DD (1994) Face recognition in human extrastriate cortex. J Neurophysiol 71:821–825

    Google Scholar 

  • Andreasen NC (1982) Negative symptoms in schizophrenia. Definition and reliability. Arch Gen Psychiatry 39:784–788

    Google Scholar 

  • Archer J, Hay DC, Young AW (1992) Face processing in psychotic conditions. Br J Clin Psychol 31:45–61

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellack AS, Morrison RL, Mueser KT (1989) Social problem solving in schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull 15:101–116

    Google Scholar 

  • Berndl K, Cranach M, Gruesser OJ (1986a) Impairment of perception and recognition of faces, mimic expression and gestures in schizophrenic patients. Eur Arch Psychiatr Neurol Sci 235:282–291

    Google Scholar 

  • Berndl K, Gruesser OJ, Martin M, Remschmidt H (1986b) Comparative studies on recognition of faces, mimic and gestures in adolescent and middle-aged schizophrenic patients. Eur Arch Psychiatr Neurol Sci 236:123–130

    Google Scholar 

  • Borod JC, Koff E, Lorch MP, Nicholas M (1986) The expression and perception of facial emotion in brain-damaged patients. Neuropsychologia 24:169–180

    Google Scholar 

  • Borod JC, Martin CC, Alpert M, Brozgold A, Welkowitz J (1993) Perception of facial emotion in schizophrenic and right braindamaged patients. J Nerv Ment Dis 181:494–502

    Google Scholar 

  • Brenner HD, Hodel B, Roder V, Corrigan P (1992) Treatment of cognitive dysfunctions and behavioral deficits in schizophrenia: integrated psychological therapy. Schizophr Bull 18: 21–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruce V, Young A (1986) Understanding face recognition. Br J Psychol 77:305–327

    Google Scholar 

  • Cutting (1981) Judgement of emotional expression in schizophrenics. Br J Psychiatry 139:1–6

    Google Scholar 

  • Desimone R (1991) Face selective cells in temporal cortex of monkeys. J Cogn Neurosci 3:1–7

    Google Scholar 

  • Dougherty FE, Bartlett ES, Izard CE (1974) Responses of schizophrenics to expressions of the fundamental emotions. J Clin Psychol 30:243–246

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekman P, Friesen WV (1976) Pictures of facial affect. Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, Calif

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekman P, Friesen WV, Ellsworth P (1972) Emotions in the human face. Pergamon Press, Elstead, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Ennis JH, Whelton C (1994) The relationship between face recognition, facial affect recognition and social skills in schizophrenia. Can J Psychiatry 39:58

    Google Scholar 

  • Feinberg TE, Rifkin A, Schaffer C, Walker E (1986) Facial discrimination and emotional recognition in schizophrenia and affective disorders. Arch Gen Psychiatry 43:276–279

    Google Scholar 

  • Feyereisen P (1986) Production and comprehension of emotional facial expressions in brain-damaged subjects. In: Bruyer R (ed) The neuropsychology of face perception and facial expression. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, New Jersey, pp 221–245

    Google Scholar 

  • Fridlund A, Ekman P, Oster H (1987) Facial expression of emotion: review of literature 1970–1983. In: Seigman AW, Feldstein S (eds) Nonverbal behavior and communication. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, New Jersey

    Google Scholar 

  • Gaebel W, Stolz J, Wölwer W, Frick K (1989) Eye movements and face perception in schizophrenia. In: Schmid R, Zambarbieri D (eds) Proceedings of the Fifth European Congress on Eye Movements. University of Pavia, pp 284–286

  • Gaebel W, Wölwer W (1992) Facial expression and emotional face recognition in schizophrenia and depression. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 242:46–52

    Google Scholar 

  • Garfield DAS, Rogoff ML, Steinberg S (1987) Affect recognition and self-esteem in schizophrenia. Psychopathology 20:225–233

    Google Scholar 

  • Gessler S, Cutting J, Frith CD, Weinman J (1989) Schizophrenic inability to judge facial emotion: a controlled study. Br J Clin Psychol 28:19–29

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldman-Rakic PS (1988) Topography of cognition: parallel distributed networks in primate association cortex. Ann Rev Neurosci 11:137–156

    Google Scholar 

  • Heimberg C, Gur RE, Erwin RJ, Shtasel DL, Gur RC (1992) Facial emotion discrimination: III. Behavioral findings in schizophrenia. Psychiatry Res 42:253–265

    Google Scholar 

  • Kerr SL, Neale JM (1993) Emotion perception in schizophrenia: specific deficit or further evidence of generalized poor performance? J Abnorm Psychol 102:312–318

    Google Scholar 

  • Korouac G, Doré FY (1983) Accuracy and latency of judgement of facial expressions and emotions. Percept Mot Skills 57: 683–686

    Google Scholar 

  • Kline JS, Smith JE, Ellis HC (1992) Paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenic processing of facially displayed affect. J Psychiatr Res 26:169–182

    Google Scholar 

  • Kolb B (1989) Discovering the mechanism of face recognition. In: Young AW, Ellis HD (eds) Handbook of research on face processing. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 427–429

    Google Scholar 

  • Kolb B, Whishaw IQ (1990) Fundamentals of human neuropsychology. Freeman, New York, chap 23

    Google Scholar 

  • LeDoux JE (1994) Emotional networks in the brain. In: Lewis M, Haviland JM (eds) Handbook of emotions. Guilford, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Leonard CM, Rolls ET, Wilson FAW, Baylis GL (1985) Neurons in the amygdala of the monkey with responses selective for faces. Behav Brain Res 15:159–176

    Google Scholar 

  • Liberman RP, Nuechterlein KH, Wallace C (1982) Social skills training and the nature of schizophrenia. In: Curran JP, Monti PM (eds) Social skills training: a practical handbook. Guilford Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Mandal MK, Palchoudhury S (1989) Identifying the components of facial emotion and schizophrenia. Psychopathology 22: 295–300

    Google Scholar 

  • Mandal MK, Rai A (1987) Responses to facial emotion and psychopathology. Psychiatry Res 20:317–323

    Google Scholar 

  • Mesulam MM (1990) Large-scale neurocognitive networks and distributed processing for attention, language, and memory. Ann Neurol 28:597–613

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrison RL, Bellack AS, Mueser KT (1988) Deficits in facial-affect recognition and schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull 14:67–83

    Google Scholar 

  • Muzekari LH, Bates ME (1977) Judgment of emotion among chronic schizophrenics. J Clin Psychol 33:662–666

    Google Scholar 

  • Novic J, Luchins DJ, Perline R (1984) Facial affect recognition in schizophrenia—Is there a differential deficit? Br J Psychiatry 114:533–537

    Google Scholar 

  • Overall JE, Gorham DR (1962) The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale. Psychol Rep 10:799–812

    Google Scholar 

  • Perrett DI, Smith PAJ, Potter DD, Mistlin AJ, Herz AS, Milner AD, Jeeves MA (1985) Visual cells in the temporal cortex sensitive to face view and gaze direction. Proc R Soc Lond 223: 293–317

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneider F, Koch J-D, Mattes R, Heinmann H (1992) Das Erkennen von Emotionen aus dem Gesichtsausdruck bei visuellen Halbfelddarbietungen durch schizophrene und depressive Patienten. Nervenarzt 63:545–550

    Google Scholar 

  • Sergent J, Shinsuke O, MacDonald B (1992) Functional neuroanatomy of face and object processing. Brain 115:15–36

    Google Scholar 

  • Simpson GM, Angus CB, Angus JWS (1970) A rating scale for extrapyramidal side effects. Acta Psychiatr Scand 212:11–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Spitzer RL, Endicott J, Robins E (1978) Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) for a selected group of functional disorders, 3rd edn. Biometrics Research, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker E, Marwit SJ, Emory E (1980) A cross-sectional study of emotion recognition in schizophrenics. J Abnorm Psychol 89: 428–436

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker E, McGuire M, Bettes B (1984) Recognition and identification of facial stimuli by schizophrenics and patients with affective disorders. Br J Clin Psychol 23:37–44

    Google Scholar 

  • Zuckerman M, Libets MS, Koivumaki JH, Rosenthal R (1975) Encoding and decoding nonverbal cues of emotion. J Pers Soc Psychol 32:1065–1076

    Google Scholar 

  • Zuroff DC, Colussy SA (1986) Emotion recognition in schizophrenic and depressed inpatients. J Clin Psychol 42:411–416

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Bergische Landstrasse 2, D-40629, Düsseldorf, Germany

    W. Wölwer, M. Streit & W. Gaebel

  2. Department of Neurology, Free University, Eschenallee 3, D-14050, Berlin, Germany

    U. Polzer

Authors
  1. W. Wölwer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M. Streit
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. W. Gaebel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. U. Polzer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wölwer, W., Streit, M., Gaebel, W. et al. Facial affect recognition in the course of schizophrenia. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Nuerosci 246, 165–170 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02189118

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02189118

Key words

Search

Navigation