title: Impaired facial emotion recognition and reduced amygdalar volume in schizophrenia.
abstract: Structural abnormalities of the amygdala and impaired facial emotion recognition have been reported in schizophrenia. Most studies demonstrated reduced amygdalar volumes in schizophrenia patients, and difficulty in recognizing negative facial emotions has also been reported. However, findings on the deficit in facial emotion recognition have been inconsistent, and the relationships between this impairment and amygdalar volume reduction remain unclear. In this study, we investigated these relationships by performing volumetric analysis of the amygdala and evaluation of facial emotion recognition performance in the same subjects with schizophrenia. The sample group comprised 20 schizophrenia patients and 20 matched healthy controls. We measured the volumes of the amygdalae with high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 3.0 Tesla. Additionally, we included a task that evaluated the subjects' ability to recognize the intensity of basic facial emotions. We found that impaired facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia patients is emotion-specific (sadness, surprise, disgust, and anger). Moreover, the volume of each amygdala on either side of the brain was reduced. Finally, we found a correlation between left amygdalar volume and the recognition of sadness in facial expressions. This study demonstrated that amygdala dysfunction may contribute to impaired facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: Human Brain Research Center, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan. cnamiki@kuhp.kyoto-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Chihiro
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Namiki
authors.forename: Kazuyuki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hirao
authors.forename: Makiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hanakawa
authors.forename: Hidenao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fukuyama
authors.forename: Takuji
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.forename: Toshiya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Murai
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D019260:Expressed Emotion; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index