Disturbances of affective prosody in patients with schizophrenia; a cross sectional study.
The objective was to determine whether disturbances of affective prosody constitute part of the symptomatology of schizophrenia. Affective prosody is defined here as a neuropsychological function that encompasses all non-verbal aspects of language that are necessary for recognising and conveying emotions in communication. Twenty six schizophrenic outpatients and twenty four normal controls underwent a standardised prosody test, assessing four different aspects of affective prosody: spontaneous prosody, prosodic recognition, prosodic repetition, and facial affect recognition. Patients scored significantly worse than controls on three of the four subtests: spontaneous prosody, prosodic recognition, and prosodic repetition. There were no significant differences on a subtest for facial affect recognition. Differences in educational level between patients and controls could not account for these differences.
Leentjens
A F
AF
General Psychiatric Hospital, Drenthe, Assen, The Netherlands.
Wielaert
S M
SM
van Harskamp
F
F
Wilmink
F W
FW
D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index