DIPSU, Università di Urbino, Italy.
Schizophr Res. 2012 Sep;140(1-3):46-50. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2012.06.029. Epub 2012 Jul 25.
In normal observers gazing at one's own face in the mirror for some minutes, at a low illumination level, triggers the perception of strange faces, a new perceptual illusion that has been named 'strange-face in the mirror'. Subjects see distortions of their own faces, but often they see monsters, archetypical faces, faces of dead relatives, and of animals.
We designed this study to primarily compare strange-face apparitions in response to mirror gazing in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. The study included 16 patients with schizophrenia and 21 healthy controls. In this paper we administered a 7 minute mirror gazing test (MGT). Before the mirror gazing session, all subjects underwent assessment with the Cardiff Anomalous Perception Scale (CAPS). When the 7minute MGT ended, the experimenter assessed patients and controls with a specifically designed questionnaire and interviewed them, asking them to describe strange-face perceptions.
Apparitions of strange-faces in the mirror were significantly more intense in schizophrenic patients than in controls. All the following variables were higher in patients than in healthy controls: frequency (p<.005) and cumulative duration of apparitions (p<.009), number and types of strange-faces (p<.002), self-evaluation scores on Likert-type scales of apparition strength (p<.03) and of reality of apparitions (p<.001). In schizophrenic patients, these Likert-type scales showed correlations (p<.05) with CAPS total scores.
These results suggest that the increase of strange-face apparitions in schizophrenia can be produced by ego dysfunction, by body dysmorphic disorder and by misattribution of self-agency. MGT may help in completing the standard assessment of patients with schizophrenia, independently of hallucinatory psychopathology.
在正常观察者在低光照水平下凝视镜子中的自己面孔几分钟时，会触发陌生面孔的感知，这是一种新的感知错觉，被称为“镜子中的陌生面孔”。受试者会看到自己面孔的扭曲，但他们经常会看到怪物、典型面孔、死去的亲戚的面孔和动物的面孔。
我们设计这项研究主要是为了比较精神分裂症患者和健康对照组在凝视镜子时出现的陌生面孔幻觉。研究包括 16 名精神分裂症患者和 21 名健康对照组。在本文中，我们进行了 7 分钟的镜子凝视测试（MGT）。在进行镜子凝视测试之前，所有受试者都接受了卡迪夫异常感知量表（CAPS）评估。当 7 分钟的 MGT 结束时，实验者使用专门设计的问卷对患者和对照组进行评估，并对他们进行访谈，要求他们描述陌生面孔的感知。
在精神分裂症患者中，镜子中的陌生面孔幻觉明显比对照组更强烈。患者的以下所有变量都高于健康对照组：频率（p<.005）和幻觉持续时间（p<.009）、陌生面孔的数量和类型（p<.002）、在幻觉强度（p<.03）和幻觉真实性（p<.001）的李克特量表上的自我评估得分。在精神分裂症患者中，这些李克特量表与 CAPS 总分呈相关性（p<.05）。
这些结果表明，精神分裂症中陌生面孔幻觉的增加可能是由自我功能障碍、身体畸形障碍和自我归因错误引起的。MGT 可以帮助完成对精神分裂症患者的标准评估，而不依赖于幻觉心理病理学。
