title: Precentral and inferior prefrontal hypoactivation during facial emotion recognition in patients with schizophrenia: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.
abstract: Although patients with schizophrenia demonstrate abnormal processing of emotional face recognition, the neural substrates underlying this process remain unclear. We previously showed abnormal fronto-temporal function during facial expression of emotions, and cognitive inhibition in patients with schizophrenia using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The aim of the current study was to use fNIRS to identify which brain regions involved in recognizing emotional faces are impaired in patients with schizophrenia, and to determine the neural substrates underlying the response to emotional facial expressions per se, and to facial expressions with cognitive inhibition. We recruited 19 patients with schizophrenia and 19 healthy controls, statistically matched on age, sex, and premorbid IQ. Brain function was measured by fNIRS during emotional face assessment and face identification tasks. Patients with schizophrenia showed lower activation of the right precentral and inferior frontal areas during the emotional face task compared to controls. Further, patients with schizophrenia were slower and less accurate in completing tasks compared to healthy participants. Decreasing performance was associated with increasing severity of the disease. Our present and prior studies suggest that the impaired behavioral performance in schizophrenia is associated with different mechanisms for processing emotional facial expressions versus facial expressions combined with cognitive inhibition.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neuropsychiatry, Department of Neuroscience, Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Ube, Yamaguchi 755-8505, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Watanuki
authors.affiliation: Division of Neuropsychiatry, Department of Neuroscience, Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Ube, Yamaguchi 755-8505, Japan. Electronic address: kmatsuo@yamaguchi-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Matsuo
authors.affiliation: Division of Neuropsychiatry, Department of Neuroscience, Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Ube, Yamaguchi 755-8505, Japan; Egashira Clinic, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka 807-8555, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuteru
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Egashira
authors.affiliation: Division of Neuropsychiatry, Department of Neuroscience, Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Ube, Yamaguchi 755-8505, Japan; Nagatoichinomiya Hospital, Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi 751-0885, Japan.
authors.forename: Mami
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakashima
authors.affiliation: Division of Neuropsychiatry, Department of Neuroscience, Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Ube, Yamaguchi 755-8505, Japan.
authors.forename: Kenichiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Harada
authors.affiliation: Division of Neuropsychiatry, Department of Neuroscience, Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Ube, Yamaguchi 755-8505, Japan; Katakura Hospital, Ube, Yamaguchi 755-0151, Japan.
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakano
authors.affiliation: Division of Neuropsychiatry, Department of Neuroscience, Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Ube, Yamaguchi 755-8505, Japan; Health Administration Center, Yamaguchi University Organization for University Education, Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi 753-8511, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsubara
authors.affiliation: Katakura Hospital, Ube, Yamaguchi 755-0151, Japan.
authors.forename: Kanji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.affiliation: Division of Neuropsychiatry, Department of Neuroscience, Yamaguchi University Graduate School of Medicine, Ube, Yamaguchi 755-8505, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshifumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Watanabe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D000066499:Facial Recognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000378:metabolism*; D011930:Reaction Time; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000378:metabolism*; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared
keywords: Emotion; Face expression; Face perception; Near-infrared spectroscopy; Schizophrenia; Social cognition