Emotion perception in schizophrenia: an eye movement study comparing the effectiveness of risperidone vs. haloperidol.
We used a psychophysiological marker of visual attention (the visual scanpath) to investigate the effects of atypical (risperidone) vs. typical (haloperidol) antipsychotic medication on facial emotion perception in schizophrenia (n=28) and healthy control (n=28) groups. Of the schizophrenia subjects, 15 were prescribed risperidone. Visual scanpaths to 'happy', 'sad' and 'neutral' faces were recorded using video-oculography, and concurrent emotion-recognition accuracy was assessed using multiple-option tasks. Compared to control subjects, both schizophrenia subgroups showed a restriction in visual scanning (reduced total fixation number and decreased scanpath length). Haloperidol-treated schizophrenia subjects exhibited an additional and consistent pattern of reduced attention (fixation) to salient features for neutral and happy. By contrast, risperidone-treated subjects showed a relatively greater attention to salient features for these expressions, in which they did not differ from controls. Recognition accuracy for happy and neutral showed a similar lack of impairment. These findings suggest that risperidone may play a specific role in schizophrenia in the ability to attend to salient features, and to integrate this information into an accurate percept for neutral and positive expressions in particular.
D000328:Adult; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004644:Emotions; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000187:drug effects*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000187:drug effects; D006220:Haloperidol / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000187:drug effects*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D018967:Risperidone / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012938:Social Perception
D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D006220:Haloperidol; D018967:Risperidone