title: Impaired perception of affective prosody in schizophrenia.
abstract: The authors aimed to explore schizophrenia patients' ability to perceive affective prosody. Specifically, certain emotions that may be more troublesome for patients and possible gender differences in prosody perception were assessed. Thirty six schizophrenia patients and 32 age-, education-, and gender-matched healthy comparison subjects assessed on an affective prosody test were examined. Patients were impaired on recognition of affective prosody overall, and their difficulties with prosody perception may be attributed to those emotions with negative valence, specifically anger and sadness. Findings revealed that only male patients were impaired on prosody perception. Deficits in the perception of affective prosody were principally evident in emotions with negative valence and male patients with schizophrenia. Future studies should explore the influence of these deficits on social and interpersonal functioning more directly.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pyschiatry, Aristotle University of Thesaloniki, Greece. vpbozikas@oneway.gr
authors.forename: Vasilis P
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Bozikas
authors.forename: Mary H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Kosmidis
authors.forename: Dimitra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Anezoulaki
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Giannakou
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Andreou
authors.forename: Athanasios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Karavatos
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D018187:Personal Construct Theory; D011379:Prognosis; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012737:Sex Factors; D012917:Social Adjustment; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception