Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Emotional Face Perception in Patients with Schizophrenia: an Event-Related Potential Study

  • Published:
Neurophysiology Aims and scope

Emotional face recognition has been shown to be drastically impaired among patients with schizophrenia. Since the underlying processes of this deficit have not been widely addressed, we attempted to investigate the relationship between facial expression perception and clinical symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. We enrolled 28 patients with schizophrenia and 28 healthy adults matched by their sex and age. The amplitude and latency of component N170 in event-related EEG potentials (ERPs) induced by presentations of happy, fearful, and neutral face images were comparatively evaluated in these two groups. Furthermore, the relationship between the N170 measures and clinical symptoms of schizophrenia were assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). The N170 responses to facial expressions in patients with schizophrenia were significantly delayed, as compared to healthy control participants [F (1, 54) = 4.25, P = 0.044]. The N170 response to fearful faces (as compared to happy and neutral faces) was elicited with the minimum latency in the control group, while this component was most delayed among schizophrenics. Positive schizophrenia symptoms correlated with the amplitudes of the left-hemisphere N170 component in response to happy, fearful, and neutral faces. Our findings suggest that the facial expression deficit in schizophrenia is related to delayed responses in face perception and is influenced by the severity of positive symptoms. The evident delay in fearful face perception among patients with schizophrenia may partly explain their inappropriate reactions to threatening conditions.

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

  1. A. Martinez, S. A. Hillyard, E. C. Dias, et al., “Magnocellular pathway impairment in schizophrenia: evidence from functional magnetic resonance imaging,” J. Neurosci., 28, 7492-7500 (2008).

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. V. M. Goghari, S. R. Sponheim, and A. W. MacDonald, “The functional neuroanatomy of symptom dimensions in schizophrenia: a qualitative and quantitative review of a persistent question,” Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev., 34, 468-486 (2010).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. C. G. Kohler, J. B. Walker, E. A. Martin, et al., “Facial emotion perception in schizophrenia: a meta-analytic review,” Schizophr. Bull., 36, 1009-1019 (2010).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. G. Sachs, D. Steger-Wuchse, I. Kryspin-Exner, et al., “Facial recognition deficits and cognition in schizophrenia,” Schizophr. Res., 68, 27-35 (2004).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. S. Caharel, C. Bernard, F. Thibaut, et al., “The effects of familiarity and emotional expression on face processing examined by ERPs in patients with schizophrenia,” Schizophr. Res., 95, 186-196 (2007).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. J. Huang, T. Xu, and R. C. Chan, “Do patients with schizophrenia have a general or specific deficit in the perception of social threat? A meta-analytic study,” Psychiat. Res., 185, 1-8 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. C. G. Kohler, W. Bilker, M. Hagendoorn, et al., “Emotion recognition deficit in schizophrenia: association with symptomatology and cognition,” Biol. Psychiat., 48, 127-136 (2000).

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Y. Chen, D. Norton, R. McBain, et al., “Visual and cognitive processing of face information in schizophrenia: detection, discrimination and working memory,” Schizophr. Res., 107, 92-98 (2009).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. R. C. Chan, H. Li, E. F. Cheung, et al., “Impaired facial emotion perception in schizophrenia: a meta-analysis,” Psychiat. Res., 178, 381-390 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. G. P. Strauss, S. S. Jetha, S. A. Ross, et al., “Impaired facial affect labeling and discrimination in patients with deficit syndrome schizophrenia,” Schizophr. Res., 118, 146-153 (2010).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. F. Schneider, R. C. Gur, K. Koch, et al., “Impairment in the specificity of emotion processing in schizophrenia,” Am. J. Psychiat., 163, 442-447 (2006).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. M. Batty and M. J. Taylor, “Early processing of the six basic facial emotional expressions,” Brain Res. Cogn. Brain Res., 17, 613-620 (2003).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. H. Li, R. C. Chan, G. M. McAlonan, et al., “Facial emotion processing in schizophrenia: a meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging data,” Schizophr. Bull., 36, 1029-1039 (2010).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. D. J. Holt, L. Kunkel, A. P. Weiss, et al., “Increased medial temporal lobe activation during the passive viewing of emotional and neutral facial expressions in schizophrenia,” Schizophr. Res., 82, 153-162 (2006).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Y. J. Pan, S. H. Chen, W. J. Chen, et al., “Affect recognition as an independent social function determinant in schizophrenia,” Comp. Psychiat., 50, 443-452 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. B. Bediou, N. Franck, M. Saoud, et al., “Effects of emotion and identity on facial affect processing in schizophrenia,” Psychiat. Res., 133, 149-157 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. А. А. Kovalenko and V. B. Pavlenko, “Emotional significance of the stimulus and features of the personality as factors reflected in the pattern of evoked EEG potentials,” Neurophysiology, 41, No. 4, 282-302 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. T. Nakashima, K. Kaneko, Y. Goto, et al., “Early ERP components differentially extract facial features: evidence for spatial frequency-and-contrast detectors,” Neurosci. Res., 62, 225-235 (2008).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. M. J. Herrmann, H. Ellgring, A. J. Fallgatter, et al., “Early-stage face processing dysfunction in patients with schizophrenia,” Am. J. Psychiat., 161, 915-917 (2004).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. P. J. Johnston, W. Stojanov, H. Devir, et al., “Functional MRI of facial emotion recognition deficits in schizophrenia and their electrophysiological correlates,” Eur. J. Neurosci., 22, 1221-1232 (2005).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. B. I. Turetsky, C. G. Kohler, T. Indersmitten, et al., “Facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia: when and why does it go awry?” Schizophr. Res., 94, 253-263 (2007).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. S. Campanella, C. Montedoro, E. Streel, et al., “Early visual components (P100, N170) are disrupted in chronic schizophrenic patients: an event-related potentials study,” Neurophysiol. Clin., 36, 71-78 ( 2006).

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. B. Bediou, M. A. Henaff, O. Bertrand, et al., “Impaired fronto-temporal processing of emotion in schizophrenia,” Neurophysiol. Clin., 37, 77-87 (2007).

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. G. D. Pearlson, “Neurobiology of schizophrenia,” Ann. Neurol., 48, 556-566 (2000).

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. P. Rocca, F. Castagna, T. Mongini, et al., “Exploring the role of face processing in facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia,” Acta Neuropsychiat., 21, 292-300 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. M. van ‘t Wout, A. Aleman, R. P. C. Kessels, et al., “Exploring the nature of facial affect processing deficits in schizophrenia,” Psychiat. Res., 150, 227-235 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. S. H. Lee, E. Y. Kim, S. Kim, et al., “Event-related potential patterns and gender effects underlying facial affect processing in schizophrenia patients,” Neurosci. Res., 67, 172-180 (2010).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. M. J. Herrmann, A. Reif, B. E. Jabs, et al., “Facial affect decoding in schizophrenic disorders: a study using event-related potentials,” Psychiat. Res., 141, 247-252 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. M. Streit, A. Ioannides, T. Sinneman, et al., “Disturbed facial affect recognition in patients with schizophrenia associated with hypoactivity in distributed brain regions: a magnetoencephalographic study,” Am. J. Psychiat., 158, 1429-1436 (2001).

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. R. C. Oldfield, “The assessment and analysis of handedness: the Edinburgh inventory,” Neuropsychologia, 9, 97-113 (1971).

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. J. Endicott and R. L. Spitzer, “A diagnostic interview: the schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia,” Arch. Gen. Psychiat., 35, 837-844 (1978).

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. S. R. Kay, L. A. Opler, and J. P. Lindenmayer, “The positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS): rationale and standardization,” Br. J. Psychiat., Suppl., 59-67 (1989).

  33. F. Ghassemi, M. H. Moradi, M. Tehrani-Doost, et al., “Effects of correct and wrong answers on ERPs recorded under conditions of the continuous performance test in ADHD/normal participants,” Neurophysiology, 42, No. 3, 213-220 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. M. Eimer, “The face-specific N170 component reflects late stages in the structural encoding of faces,” Cogn. Neurosci., 11, 2319-2324 (2000).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. J. K. Wynn, J. Lee, W. P Horan, et al., “Using event related potentials to explore stages of facial affect recognition deficits in schizophrenia,” Schizophr. Bull., 34, 679-687 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  36. K. Kirihara, K. Kasai, M. Tada, et al., “Neurophysiological impairment in emotional face processing is associated with low extraversion in schizophrenia,” Prog. Neuropsychopharmacol. Biol. Psychiat., 37, 270-275 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. S. K. An, S. J. Lee, C. H. Lee, et al., “Reduced P3 amplitudes by negative facial emotional photographs in schizophrenia,” Schizophr. Res., 64, 125-135 (2003).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. R. E. Gur, C. G. Kohler, J. D. Ragland, et al., “Flat affect in schizophrenia: relation to emotion processing and neurocognitive measures,” Schizophr. Bull., 32, 279-287 (2006).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. R. J. Thoma, F. M. Hanlon, S. N. Moses, et al., “M50 sensory gating predicts negative symptoms in schizophrenia,” Schizophr. Res., 73, 311-318 (2005).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. M. Higashima, T. Nagasawa, Y. Kawasaki, et al., “Auditory P300 amplitude as a state marker for positive symptoms in schizophrenia: cross-sectional and retrospective longitudinal studies,” Schizophr. Res., 59, 147-157 (2003).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. J. Hall, J. M. Harris, R. Sprengelmeyer, et al., “Social cognition and face processing in schizophrenia,” Br. J. Psychiat., 185, 169-170 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Cognitive Science Studies (ICSS), Tehran, Iran

    M. Akbarfahimi, M. Tehrani-Doost & F. Ghassemi

  2. School of Rehabilitation, Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Tehran, Iran

    M. Akbarfahimi

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Tehran, Iran

    M. Tehrani-Doost

  4. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (AUT), Tehran, Iran

    F. Ghassemi

Authors
  1. M. Akbarfahimi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M. Tehrani-Doost
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. F. Ghassemi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Tehrani-Doost.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Akbarfahimi, M., Tehrani-Doost, M. & Ghassemi, F. Emotional Face Perception in Patients with Schizophrenia: an Event-Related Potential Study. Neurophysiology 45, 249–257 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11062-013-9363-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11062-013-9363-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation