title: Impairment of emotional expression recognition in schizophrenia: a Cuban familial association study.
abstract: It is well established that schizophrenia is associated with difficulties in recognizing facial emotional expressions, but few studies have reported the presence of this deficit among their unaffected relatives. This study attempts to add new evidence of familial association on an emotional expression processing test. The study evaluated the performance of 93 paranoid schizophrenia patients, 110 first-degree relatives of probands from multiplex schizophrenia families, and 109 nonpsychiatric controls on a facial emotional recognition test using a computer morphing technique to present the dynamic expressions. The task entailed the recognition of a set of facial expressions depicting the six basic emotions presented in 21 successive frames of increasing intensity. The findings indicated that schizophrenia patients were consistently impaired for the recognition of the six basic facial expressions. In contrast, their unaffected relatives showed a selective impairment for the recognition of disgust and fearful expressions. Familial association of selective facial emotional expressions processing deficit may further implicate promising new endophenotypes that can advance the understanding of affective deficits in schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Psychiatry, Cuban Neurosciences Center, Havana City, Cuba.
authors.forename: Raúl
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mendoza
authors.forename: Yuranny
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cabral-Calderin
authors.forename: Mayelin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Domínguez
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.forename: Mayelin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Borrego
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Caballero
authors.forename: Seidel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Guerra
authors.forename: Migdyrai Martín
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Reyes
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003462:Cuba; D019260:Expressed Emotion / Q000502:physiology*; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012563:Schizophrenia, Paranoid / Q000150:complications*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D055815:Young Adult