Neural correlates of emotion recognition in schizophrenia.
The following fMRI study aimed to characterize the neural correlates of explicit emotion discrimination in 17 patients with schizophrenia and 17 matched healthy controls. In patients, emotion recognition impairments were found to be paralleled by cerebral dysfunctions in the affective division of the anterior cingulate cortex, the bilateral dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, the right superior temporal gyrus and the right fusiform gyrus. While the patients' responses to emotional faces were characterized predominantly by hypoactivations, the neutral faces elicited hyperactivations mainly in the frontal and cingulate areas, and the basal ganglia, along with misattribution errors. The decreased activation in the fusiform face area during responses to both emotional and neutral stimuli may be indicative of general face processing deficits. Similar although less pronounced deficits have been observed in subjects at high risk of psychosis as well as in patients with early onset. In adult schizophrenia, the evidence of an imbalanced cerebral network appears early in the course of the illness, with the dysfunctions, as indicated by correlations here, becoming more pronounced in patients with longer illness duration.
Habel
Ute
U
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstr. 30, D-52074 Aachen, Germany. uhabel@ukaachen.de
Chechko
Natalya
N
Pauly
Katharina
K
Koch
Kathrin
K
Backes
Volker
V
Seiferth
Nina
N
Shah
N Jon
NJ
Stöcker
Tony
T
Schneider
Frank
F
Kellermann
Thilo
T
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply / Q000473:pathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013223:Statistics as Topic
D010100:Oxygen