Parisi Mathilde, Raffard Stéphane, Fauviaux Tifenn, Vattier Victor, Mrabet Dorra, Capdevielle Delphine, Marin Ludovic
EuroMov Digital Health in Motion, Univ Montpellier, IMT Mines Ales, Montpellier, France.
Univ Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, EPSYLON EA, 4556, Montpellier, France.
Schizophrenia (Heidelb). 2025 Jun 7;11(1):86. doi: 10.1038/s41537-025-00632-y.
Individuals with schizophrenia often experience social skill deficits, leading to reduced social interaction quality. Emotional mimicry, the automatic imitation of a counterpart's expression, plays a crucial role in social interactions. This study introduces a novel methodology for assessing positive emotional mimicry during a naturalistic conversation. We recruited interacting partners (n = 20), each engaging in two interactions: one with an individual diagnosed with schizophrenia (n = 20) and one with a matched healthy control (n = 20). Participants were video recorded while taking turns sharing happy personal memories during six minutes. Using OpenFace, we detected participants' emotional expressions and computed mimicry scores based on their temporal alignment. Consistent with our hypotheses, individuals with schizophrenia exhibited reduced smiling and positive emotion mimicry. Furthermore, interacting partners reported lower willingness to continue interacting with individuals with schizophrenia compared to healthy controls. This study stands out for its innovative methodology, assessing a key social skill in an ecological setting. Our findings highlight the potential of emotional mimicry training as an important intervention to improve social interaction in schizophrenia.
精神分裂症患者常常存在社交技能缺陷，导致社交互动质量下降。情绪模仿，即自动模仿对方的表情，在社交互动中起着至关重要的作用。本研究引入了一种新颖的方法来评估自然对话中的积极情绪模仿。我们招募了互动伙伴（n = 20），每个人都参与两次互动：一次与被诊断为精神分裂症的个体（n = 20）互动，一次与匹配的健康对照者（n = 20）互动。参与者在轮流分享愉快的个人记忆的六分钟时间里被录像。使用OpenFace，我们检测了参与者的情绪表达，并根据时间对齐计算模仿分数。与我们的假设一致，精神分裂症患者表现出较少的微笑和积极情绪模仿。此外，与健康对照者相比，互动伙伴报告称与精神分裂症患者继续互动的意愿较低。这项研究因其创新的方法脱颖而出，即在生态环境中评估一项关键的社交技能。我们的研究结果凸显了情绪模仿训练作为改善精神分裂症患者社交互动的重要干预措施的潜力。
