title: Strange-face-in-the-mirror illusion and schizotypy during adolescence.
abstract: Patients with schizophrenia can sometimes report strange face illusions when staring at themselves in the mirror; such experiences have been conceptualized as anomalous self-experiences that can be experienced with a varying degree of depersonalization. During adolescence, anomalous self-experiences can also be indicative of increased risk to develop schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. To date however, the Mirror-Gazing test (MGT), an experimentally validated experiment to evaluate the propensity of strange face illusions in nonclinical and clinical adults, has yet to be investigated in an adolescent sample. The first goal of the present study was to examine experimentally induced self-face illusions in a nonclinical sample of adolescents, using the MGT. The second goal was to investigate whether dimensions of adolescent trait schizotypy were differentially related to phenomena arising during the MGT. One hundred and ten community adolescents (59 male) aged from 12 to 19 years (mean age = 16.31, SD age = 1.77) completed the MGT and Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire. The results yielded 4 types of strange face illusions; 2 types of illusions (slight change of light/color [20%] and own face deformation [45.5%]) lacked depersonalization-like phenomena (no identity change), while 2 other types (vision of other identity [27.3%], and vision of non-human identity [7.3%]) contained clear depersonalization-like phenomena. Furthermore, the disorganization dimension of schizotypy associated negatively with time of first illusion (first press), and positively with frequency of illusions during the MGT. Statistically significant differences on positive and disorganized schizotypy were found when comparing groups on the basis of degree of depersonalization-like phenomena (from slight color changes to non-human visions). Similarly to experimentally induced self-face illusions in patients with schizophrenia, such illusions in a group of nonclinical adolescents present significant associations to schizotypy dimensions.
authors: Department of Educational Sciences, University of La Rioja, La Rioja, Spain; Prevention Program for Psychosis (P3), Cantabria, Spain; eduardo.fonseca@unirioja.es.
authors: Eduardo
authors: E
authors: Fonseca-Pedrero
authors: Adolescence Clinical Psychology Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Office Médico-Pédagogique Research Unit, Department of Psychiatry, University of Geneva School of Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland;
authors: Deborah
authors: D
authors: Badoud
authors: Adolescence Clinical Psychology Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland;
authors: Lia
authors: L
authors: Antico
authors: DIPSUM, Universitá di Urbino, Urbino, Italy;
authors: Giovanni B
authors: GB
authors: Caputo
authors: Adolescence Clinical Psychology Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Office Médico-Pédagogique Research Unit, Department of Psychiatry, University of Geneva School of Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland;
authors: Stephan
authors: S
authors: Eliez
authors: Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland;
authors: Sophie
authors: S
authors: Schwartz
authors: Adolescence Clinical Psychology Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Office Médico-Pédagogique Research Unit, Department of Psychiatry, University of Geneva School of Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland; Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK.
authors: Martin
authors: M
authors: Debbané
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007088:Illusions / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D012569:Schizotypal Personality Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012649:Self Concept; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: misattribution of self-agency; schizotypal; schizotypy; self-recognition; strange-face-in-the mirror illusion; visual perception