Gender differences in facial emotion recognition in persons with chronic schizophrenia.
BACKGROUND
The aim of the present study was to investigate possible sex differences in the recognition of facial expressions of emotion and to investigate the pattern of classification errors in schizophrenic males and females. Such an approach provides an opportunity to inspect the degree to which males and females differ in perceiving and interpreting the different emotions displayed to them and to analyze which emotions are most susceptible to recognition errors.


METHODS
Fifty six chronically hospitalized schizophrenic patients (38 men and 18 women) completed the Penn Emotion Recognition Test (ER40), a computerized emotion discrimination test presenting 40 color photographs of evoked happy, sad, anger, fear expressions and neutral expressions balanced for poser gender and ethnicity.


RESULTS
We found a significant sex difference in the patterns of error rates in the Penn Emotion Recognition Test. Neutral faces were more commonly mistaken as angry in schizophrenic men, whereas schizophrenic women misinterpreted neutral faces more frequently as sad. Moreover, female faces were better recognized overall, but fear was better recognized in same gender photographs, whereas anger was better recognized in different gender photographs.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings of the present study lend support to the notion that sex differences in aggressive behavior could be related to a cognitive style characterized by hostile attributions to neutral faces in schizophrenic men.
Weiss
Elisabeth M
EM
Department of General Psychiatry, Medical University Innsbruck, Anichstrasse 35, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria. elisabeth.weiss@uibk.ac.at
Kohler
Christian G
CG
Brensinger
Colleen M
CM
Bilker
Warren B
WB
Loughead
James
J
Delazer
Margarete
M
Nolan
Karen A
KA
D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012737:Sex Factors