title: Facial emotion perception differs in young persons at genetic and clinical high-risk for psychosis.
abstract: A large body of literature has documented facial emotion perception impairments in schizophrenia. More recently, emotion perception has been investigated in persons at genetic and clinical high-risk for psychosis. This study compared emotion perception abilities in groups of young persons with schizophrenia, clinical high-risk, genetic risk and healthy controls. Groups, ages 13-25, included 24 persons at clinical high-risk, 52 first-degree relatives at genetic risk, 91 persons with schizophrenia and 90 low risk persons who completed computerized testing of emotion recognition and differentiation. Groups differed by overall emotion recognition abilities and recognition of happy, sad, anger and fear expressions. Pairwise comparisons revealed comparable impairments in recognition of happy, angry, and fearful expressions for persons at clinical high-risk and schizophrenia, while genetic risk participants were less impaired, showing reduced recognition of fearful expressions. Groups also differed for differentiation of happy and sad expressions, but differences were mainly between schizophrenia and control groups. Emotion perception impairments are observable in young persons at-risk for psychosis. Preliminary results with clinical high-risk participants, when considered along findings in genetic risk relatives, suggest social cognition abilities to reflect pathophysiological processes involved in risk of schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania, Department of Psychiatry, Philadelphia, PA, United States. Electronic address: kohler@upenn.edu.
authors.forename: Christian G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Kohler
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania, Department of Psychiatry, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
authors.forename: Jan A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Richard
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania, Department of Psychiatry, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
authors.forename: Colleen M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Brensinger
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania, Department of Psychiatry, Philadelphia, PA, United States; Children׳s Hospital of Philadelphia, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
authors.forename: Karin E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Borgmann-Winter
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania, Department of Psychiatry, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
authors.forename: Catherine G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Conroy
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania, Department of Psychiatry, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
authors.forename: Paul J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Moberg
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania, Department of Psychiatry, Philadelphia, PA, United States; The Philadelphia Veterans Administration Hospital, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
authors.forename: Ruben C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Gur
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania, Department of Psychiatry, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
authors.forename: Raquel E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Gur
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania, Department of Psychiatry, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
authors.forename: Monica E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Calkins
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010465:Perception; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Clinical high-risk for psychosis; Emotion differentiation; Emotion recognition; Genetic risk; Schizophrenia