Differential Impairment in Emotion Face Perception in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders
Author Information
Author(s): Mewton Paige, Dawel Amy, Miller Elizabeth J, Shou Yiyun, Christensen Bruce K
Primary Institution: The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Hypothesis
SSD-related impairments are larger for emotion than non-emotion face perception, but study characteristics moderate this differential impairment.
Conclusion
The study demonstrates that people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders have a specific impairment in emotion perception that is not simply due to general cognitive deficits.
Supporting Evidence
- Emotion impairments are observed more frequently than non-emotion impairments in SSD.
- The differential emotion impairment is present regardless of SSD severity.
- Matching samples for intelligence does not significantly influence the size of SSD-related impairments.
- Using memory-dependent tasks for non-emotion comparisons can inflate impairments and obscure differential emotion impairments.
- Non-emotion tasks are often too easy, leading to underestimated impairments.
Takeaway
People with schizophrenia have a harder time recognizing emotions on faces compared to other face features, and this problem is not just because they struggle with thinking in general.
Methodology
The study meta-analyzed 313 effect sizes from 104 articles to compare emotion and non-emotion face perception impairments in SSD.
Potential Biases
Potential bias due to the inclusion of only studies with both emotion and non-emotion tasks.
Limitations
The study may not account for all variations in task difficulty and design across included studies.
Participant Demographics
Participants included individuals with various schizophrenia spectrum disorders, with a total of 8036 SSD participants and 6951 comparison participants.
Statistical Information
P-Value
p<0.001
Confidence Interval
[0.56, 0.74]
Statistical Significance
p<0.001
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Want to read the original?
Access the complete publication on the publisher's website