title: Response of schizophrenic patients to dynamic facial expressions: an event-related potentials study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Patients with schizophrenia have an impaired ability to respond to faces and may specifically show an impaired response to dynamic facial expressions. Here we investigated the responses of schizophrenic patients and healthy controls to dynamic facial images using event-related potentials (ERPs).
  
  
  METHODS
  We showed 13 schizophrenic patients and 13 healthy controls visual stimuli comprising facial expressions that continually changed from neutral to emotional.
  
  
  RESULTS
  N200 latencies and P100-N200 peak-to-peak amplitudes in controls were prolonged or greater for dynamic emotions in comparison with those for static stimuli, but the group with schizophrenia showed no significant differences in responses to dynamic and static emotions. A significant negative correlation was observed between N200 latencies for dynamic negative emotion and PANSS (positive and negative syndrome scale) general psychopathology scale scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A combination of hypersensitivity to static emotions and hyposensitivity to dynamic emotions in people with schizophrenia might underlie the absence of differences in response to these stimuli. A tendency in the schizophrenic group to hypersensitivity to static emotions might arise from the enhanced fear and arousal characteristics of this group; their hyposensitivity to dynamic emotions might result from controlled attentional bias away from facial expressions to reduce fear and anxiety.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Juntendo University, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Mayuko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fukuta
authors.forename: Eiji
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kirino
authors.forename: Reiichi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Inoue
authors.forename: Heii
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Arai
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000873:Anthracenes; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005145:Face; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: C546739:AnOV compound; D000873:Anthracenes