title: Are there differential deficits in facial emotion recognition between paranoid and non-paranoid schizophrenia? A signal detection analysis.
abstract: This study assessed facial emotion recognition abilities in subjects with paranoid and non-paranoid schizophrenia (NPS) using signal detection theory. We explore the differential deficits in facial emotion recognition in 44 paranoid patients with schizophrenia (PS) and 30 non-paranoid patients with schizophrenia (NPS), compared to 80 healthy controls. We used morphed faces with different intensities of emotion and computed the sensitivity index (d') of each emotion. The results showed that performance differed between the schizophrenia and healthy controls groups in the recognition of both negative and positive affects. The PS group performed worse than the healthy controls group but better than the NPS group in overall performance. Performance differed between the NPS and healthy controls groups in the recognition of all basic emotions and neutral faces; between the PS and healthy controls groups in the recognition of angry faces; and between the PS and NPS groups in the recognition of happiness, anger, sadness, disgust, and neutral affects. The facial emotion recognition impairment in schizophrenia may reflect a generalized deficit rather than a negative-emotion specific deficit. The PS group performed worse than the control group, but better than the NPS group in facial expression recognition, with differential deficits between PS and NPS patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Charles Lung-Cheng
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Sigmund
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hsiao
authors.forename: Hai-Gwo
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Hwu
authors.forename: Shen-Long
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Howng
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000209:etiology*; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications*; D012563:Schizophrenia, Paranoid / Q000150:complications*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Facial emotion recognition; Intensities; Morphed faces; Paranoid; Schizophrenia; Signal detection theory; Subtype