title: Dysfunction in configural face processing in patients with schizophrenia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Face recognition has important implications for patients with schizophrenia, who exhibit poor interpersonal and social skills. Previous reports have suggested that patients with schizophrenia have deficits in their ability to recognize faces, and because face recognition relies heavily on information about the configuration of faces, we hypothesized that patients with schizophrenia would have specific problems in processing configural information.
  
  
  METHODS
  We measured the performance of 20 patients with schizophrenia and 20 normal subjects in a face-discrimination task, using upright and inverted pairs of face photographs that differed in featural or configural information.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The patients with schizophrenia showed disproportionately poorer performance in discriminating configural compared with featural face sets.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The result suggests that the face-recognition deficit in schizophrenic patients is due to specific impairments in configural processing of faces.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosychiatry, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Yong-Wook
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Myung Hyon
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Na
authors.forename: Tae Hyon
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Ha
authors.forename: Do-Hyung
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: So-Young
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.forename: Jun Soo
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Kwon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005145:Face; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index