Tso Ivy F, Calwas Anita M, Chun Jinsoo, Mueller Savanna A, Taylor Stephan F, Deldin Patricia J
Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan.
Program in Audiology and Communication Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
J Abnorm Psychol. 2015 Aug;124(3):519-531. doi: 10.1037/abn0000056.
Using gaze information to orient attention and guide behavior is critical to social adaptation. Previous studies have suggested that abnormal gaze perception in schizophrenia (SCZ) may originate in abnormal early attentional and perceptual processes and may be related to paranoid symptoms. Using event-related brain potentials (ERPs), this study investigated altered early attentional and perceptual processes during gaze perception and their relationship to paranoid delusions in SCZ. Twenty-eight individuals with SCZ or schizoaffective disorder and 32 demographically matched healthy controls (HCs) completed a gaze-discrimination task with face stimuli varying in gaze direction (direct, averted), head orientation (forward, deviated), and emotion (neutral, fearful). ERPs were recorded during the task. Participants rated experienced threat from each face after the task. Participants with SCZ were as accurate as, though slower than, HCs on the task. Participants with SCZ displayed enlarged N170 responses over the left hemisphere to averted gaze presented in fearful relative to neutral faces, indicating a heightened encoding sensitivity to faces signaling external threat. This abnormality was correlated with increased perceived threat and paranoid delusions. Participants with SCZ also showed a reduction of N170 modulation by head orientation (normally increased amplitude to deviated faces relative to forward faces), suggesting less integration of contextual cues of head orientation in gaze perception. The psychophysiological deviations observed during gaze discrimination in SCZ underscore the role of early attentional and perceptual abnormalities in social information processing and paranoid symptoms of SCZ.
利用注视信息来引导注意力和行为对于社会适应至关重要。先前的研究表明，精神分裂症（SCZ）患者异常的注视感知可能源于早期注意力和感知过程的异常，并且可能与偏执症状有关。本研究使用事件相关脑电位（ERP）来调查SCZ患者在注视感知过程中早期注意力和感知过程的改变及其与偏执妄想的关系。28名患有SCZ或分裂情感性障碍的个体以及32名人口统计学匹配的健康对照者（HCs）完成了一项注视辨别任务，该任务中的面部刺激在注视方向（直视、回避）、头部朝向（向前、偏斜）和情绪（中性、恐惧）方面有所不同。在任务过程中记录ERP。任务结束后，参与者对每张脸所感受到的威胁程度进行评分。SCZ患者在任务中的准确性与HCs相当，但速度较慢。相对于中性面孔，SCZ患者在左半球对恐惧面孔中呈现的回避注视表现出更大的N170反应，表明对发出外部威胁信号的面孔具有更高的编码敏感性。这种异常与感知到的威胁增加和偏执妄想相关。SCZ患者还表现出头部朝向对N170的调节作用减弱（相对于向前的面孔，通常对偏斜面孔的振幅增加），这表明在注视感知中对头部位移上下文线索的整合较少。在SCZ患者的注视辨别过程中观察到的心理生理偏差强调了早期注意力和感知异常在SCZ患者社会信息处理和偏执症状中的作用。
