title: Affective processing in positive schizotypy: Loose control of social-emotional information.
abstract: Behavioral studies suggested heightened impact of emotionally laden perceptual input in schizophrenia spectrum disorders, in particular in patients with prominent positive symptoms. De-coupling of prefrontal and posterior cortices during stimulus processing, which is related to loosening of control of the prefrontal cortex over incoming affectively laden information, may underlie this abnormality. Pre-selected groups of individuals with low versus high positive schizotypy (lower and upper quartile of a large screening sample) were tested. During exposure to auditory displays of strong emotions (anger, sadness, cheerfulness), individuals with elevated levels of positive schizotypal symptoms showed lesser prefrontal-posterior coupling (EEG coherence) than their symptom-free counterparts (right hemisphere). This applied to negative emotions in particular and was most pronounced during confrontation with anger. The findings indicate a link between positive symptoms and a heightened impact particularly of threatening emotionally laden stimuli which might lead to exacerbation of positive symptoms and inappropriate behavior in interpersonal situations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology Unit, University of Graz, Austria. Electronic address: ilona.papousek@uni-graz.at.
authors.forename: Ilona
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Papousek
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology Unit, University of Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Elisabeth M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology Unit, University of Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Jochen A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Mosbacher
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology Unit, University of Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Eva M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Reiser
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology Unit, University of Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Günter
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schulter
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology Unit, University of Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fink
keywords: EEG coherence; Functional connectivity; Schizotypal; Schizotypy; Social-emotional stimulation; Top-down modulation