title: 'What is more familiar than I? Self, other and familiarity in schizophrenia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Familiarity disorders (FDs) critically impact social cognition in persons with schizophrenia. FDs can affect both relationships with people familiar to the patient and the patient's relationship with himself, in the case of a self-disorder. Skin conductance response (SCR) studies have shown that familiar and unknown faces elicit the same emotional response in persons with schizophrenia with FD. Moreover, in control subjects, one's own face and familiar faces have been shown to activate strongly overlapping neural networks, suggesting common processing. The aim of the present study was to determine whether the mechanisms involved in processing one's own and familiar faces are similarly impaired in persons with schizophrenia, suggesting a link between them.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-eight persons with schizophrenia were compared with twenty control subjects. Three face conditions were used: specific familiar, self and unknown. The task was to indicate the gender of the faces presented randomly on a screen during SCR recording. Face recognition was evaluated afterwards.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Control subjects exhibited similar SCRs for the familiar and self-conditions, which were higher than the responses elicited by the unknown condition, whereas persons with schizophrenia exhibited no significant differences between the three conditions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Persons with schizophrenia have a core defect of both self and familiarity that is emphasised by the lack of an increased SCR upon presentation with either self or familiar stimuli. Familiarity with specific familiar faces and one's own face may be driven by the same mechanism. This perturbation may predispose persons with schizophrenia to delusions and, in particular, to general familiarity disorder.
authors.affiliation: Université Lille Nord de France, F-59000 Lille, France; Laboratoire de Neurosciences Fonctionnelles et Pathologies (LNFP), Université Droit et Santé Lille (UDSL), F-59000 Lille, France; AP-HP, Department of Psychiatry, Louis Mourier Hospital, Colombes, France.. Electronic address: aurely.ameller@lmr.aphp.fr.
authors.forename: Aurely
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ameller
authors.affiliation: AP-HP, Department of Psychiatry, Louis Mourier Hospital, Colombes, France.; INSERM U675-U894, Center of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dereux
authors.affiliation: AP-HP, Department of Psychiatry, Louis Mourier Hospital, Colombes, France.; INSERM U675-U894, Center of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Paris, France.; University Paris 7 Denis Diderot, Faculty of Medicine, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dubertret
authors.affiliation: Université Lille Nord de France, F-59000 Lille, France; Laboratoire de Neurosciences Fonctionnelles et Pathologies (LNFP), Université Droit et Santé Lille (UDSL), F-59000 Lille, France; Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Lille (CHULille), Hôpital Fontan, Lille, F-59037 France.
authors.forename: Guillaume
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vaiva
authors.affiliation: Université Lille Nord de France, F-59000 Lille, France; Laboratoire de Neurosciences Fonctionnelles et Pathologies (LNFP), Université Droit et Santé Lille (UDSL), F-59000 Lille, France; Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Lille (CHULille), Hôpital Fontan, Lille, F-59037 France.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: Université Lille Nord de France, F-59000 Lille, France; Laboratoire de Neurosciences Fonctionnelles et Pathologies (LNFP), Université Droit et Santé Lille (UDSL), F-59000 Lille, France; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), F-75794 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Delphine
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pins
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005145:Face; D000066499:Facial Recognition / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012649:Self Concept
keywords: Capgras; Familiarity; Schizophrenia; Self; Skin conductance response