Green Melissa J, Williams Leanne M, Davidson Dean
Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2006, Australia.
Psychiatry Res. 2003 Aug 1;119(3):271-85. doi: 10.1016/s0165-1781(03)00129-x.
This study examined visuo-cognitive processing of threat-related (anger, fear) and non-threat faces (happy, sad, neutral) in deluded schizophrenia (n=11), non-deluded schizophrenia (n=8), and healthy control (n=22) participants. Focal analyses examined scanpath aberrations for particular facial expressions in sub-groups of schizophrenia patients determined by the presence or absence of overt delusions. Deluded schizophrenia subjects exhibited significantly fewer fixations of shorter duration for all faces, and fewer fixations of reduced duration to the feature areas of negative facial expressions (anger, sad), compared with healthy controls. Compared with non-deluded schizophrenia subjects, deluded subjects exhibited fewer fixations to fear expressions and more fixations to the feature areas of happy expressions. These findings were revealed in the context of restricted scanning (reduced number and duration of fixations, shorter scanpath length and shorter duration of fixations to facial features) in the entire schizophrenia group (n=19) compared with healthy controls. The findings suggest a controlled attentional bias away from the feature areas of negative facial expressions in deluded schizophrenia, that is, specific to threat-related expressions compared with non-deluded schizophrenia subjects. This controlled bias away from negative social stimuli in deluded schizophrenia is discussed in terms of an attentional style of 'vigilance-avoidance' operating across early and late stages of information processing.
本研究考察了妄想型精神分裂症患者（n = 11）、非妄想型精神分裂症患者（n = 8）和健康对照组（n = 22）对威胁相关面孔（愤怒、恐惧）和非威胁面孔（高兴、悲伤、中性）的视觉认知加工。重点分析考察了根据是否存在明显妄想确定的精神分裂症患者亚组中特定面部表情的扫描路径偏差。与健康对照组相比，妄想型精神分裂症患者对所有面孔的注视次数明显减少，且注视持续时间较短，对负面面部表情（愤怒、悲伤）特征区域的注视持续时间缩短。与非妄想型精神分裂症患者相比，妄想型患者对恐惧表情的注视较少，对高兴表情特征区域的注视较多。与健康对照组相比，整个精神分裂症组（n = 19）在扫描受限的情况下（注视次数和持续时间减少、扫描路径长度缩短以及对面部特征的注视持续时间缩短）出现了这些结果。研究结果表明，妄想型精神分裂症患者存在一种有控制的注意力偏向，即与非妄想型精神分裂症患者相比，对与威胁相关的表情（负面面部表情特征区域）的注意力偏向。从信息加工早期和晚期都起作用的“警惕 - 回避”注意力风格角度，讨论了妄想型精神分裂症患者对负面社会刺激的这种有控制的偏向。
