Seo Eunchong, Park Hye Yoon, Park Kyungmee, Koo Se Jun, Lee Su Young, Min Jee Eun, Lee Eun, An Suk Kyoon
Section of Self, Affect and Neuroscience, Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
Department of Psychiatry, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Severance Hospital, Seoul, South Korea.
Front Psychiatry. 2020 Jun 26;11:577. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00577. eCollection 2020.
Patients with schizophrenia and individuals at ultra-high risk for psychosis (UHR) have been reported to exhibit impaired recognition of facial emotion expressions. This impairment has involved both inaccuracy and negative bias of facial emotion recognition. The present study aimed to investigate whether UHR individuals display both types of impaired facial emotion recognition and to explore correlations between these impairments and schizotypy, as well as paranoia levels, in these individuals.
A total of 43 UHR individuals and 57 healthy controls (HC) completed a facial emotion recognition task consisting of 60 standardized facial photographs. To explore correlations, we assessed schizotypy using the Revised Physical Anhedonia Scale and Magical Ideation Scale and paranoia level using the Paranoia Scale and persecution/suspicious item of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale in UHR individuals.
Compared with HC, UHR individuals exhibited less accuracy for facial emotion recognition (70.6% vs. 75.6%, p=0.010) and a higher rate of "fear" responses for neutral faces (14.5% vs. 6.0%, p=0.003). In UHR individuals, inaccuracy was significantly correlated with schizotypy scores, but not with paranoia level. Conversely, "disgust" response for neutral faces was the only fear response correlated with paranoia level, and no threat-related emotion response correlated with schizotypy scores.
UHR individuals exhibited inaccuracy and negative bias of facial emotion recognition. Furthermore, schizotypy scores were associated with inaccuracy but not with negative bias of facial emotion recognition. Paranoia level was correlated with "disgust" responses for neutral faces but not with inaccuracy. These findings suggest that inaccuracy and negative bias of facial emotion recognition reflect different underlying processes, and that inaccuracy may be a vulnerability marker for schizophrenia.
据报道，精神分裂症患者和精神病超高风险个体（UHR）对面部情绪表达的识别存在障碍。这种障碍包括面部情绪识别的不准确和消极偏差。本研究旨在调查UHR个体是否表现出这两种类型的面部情绪识别障碍，并探讨这些障碍与这些个体的分裂型人格特质以及偏执水平之间的相关性。
共有43名UHR个体和57名健康对照者（HC）完成了一项面部情绪识别任务，该任务由60张标准化面部照片组成。为了探讨相关性，我们使用修订后的躯体快感缺乏量表和神奇观念量表评估UHR个体的分裂型人格特质，并使用偏执量表以及阳性和阴性症状量表中的迫害/怀疑项目评估偏执水平。
与HC相比，UHR个体面部情绪识别的准确性较低（70.6%对75.6%，p=0.010），对中性面孔的“恐惧”反应率较高（14.5%对6.0%，p=0.003）。在UHR个体中，不准确与分裂型人格特质得分显著相关，但与偏执水平无关。相反，对中性面孔的“厌恶”反应是唯一与偏执水平相关的恐惧反应，且没有与分裂型人格特质得分相关的威胁相关情绪反应。
UHR个体表现出面部情绪识别的不准确和消极偏差。此外，分裂型人格特质得分与不准确相关，但与面部情绪识别的消极偏差无关。偏执水平与对中性面孔的“厌恶”反应相关，但与不准确无关。这些发现表明，面部情绪识别的不准确和消极偏差反映了不同的潜在过程，并且不准确可能是精神分裂症的一个易感性标志物。
