TY - JOUR
T1 - The face and its emotion
T2 - Right N170 deficits in structural processing and early emotional discrimination in schizophrenic patients and relatives
AU - Ibáñez, Agustín
AU - Riveros, Rodrigo
AU - Hurtado, Esteban
AU - Gleichgerrcht, Ezequiel
AU - Urquina, Hugo
AU - Herrera, Eduar
AU - Amoruso, Lucía
AU - Reyes, Migdyrai Martin
AU - Manes, Facundo
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was partially supported by grants from CONICET , FINECO and Diego Portales University . We thank the schizophrenia working group from University Diego Portales. We wish to thank the patients and their relatives for their participation in this study.
PY - 2012/1/30
Y1 - 2012/1/30
N2 - Previous studies have reported facial emotion recognition impairments in schizophrenic patients, as well as abnormalities in the N170 component of the event-related potential. Current research on schizophrenia highlights the importance of complexly-inherited brain-based deficits. In order to examine the N170 markers of face structural and emotional processing, DSM-IV diagnosed schizophrenia probands (n= 13), unaffected first-degree relatives from multiplex families (n= 13), and control subjects (n= 13) matched by age, gender and educational level, performed a categorization task which involved words and faces with positive and negative valence. The N170 component, while present in relatives and control subjects, was reduced in patients, not only for faces, but also for face-word differences, suggesting a deficit in structural processing of stimuli. Control subjects showed N170 modulation according to the valence of facial stimuli. However, this discrimination effect was found to be reduced both in patients and relatives. This is the first report showing N170 valence deficits in relatives. Our results suggest a generalized deficit affecting the structural encoding of faces in patients, as well as the emotion discrimination both in patients and relatives. Finally, these findings lend support to the notion that cortical markers of facial discrimination can be validly considered as vulnerability markers.
AB - Previous studies have reported facial emotion recognition impairments in schizophrenic patients, as well as abnormalities in the N170 component of the event-related potential. Current research on schizophrenia highlights the importance of complexly-inherited brain-based deficits. In order to examine the N170 markers of face structural and emotional processing, DSM-IV diagnosed schizophrenia probands (n= 13), unaffected first-degree relatives from multiplex families (n= 13), and control subjects (n= 13) matched by age, gender and educational level, performed a categorization task which involved words and faces with positive and negative valence. The N170 component, while present in relatives and control subjects, was reduced in patients, not only for faces, but also for face-word differences, suggesting a deficit in structural processing of stimuli. Control subjects showed N170 modulation according to the valence of facial stimuli. However, this discrimination effect was found to be reduced both in patients and relatives. This is the first report showing N170 valence deficits in relatives. Our results suggest a generalized deficit affecting the structural encoding of faces in patients, as well as the emotion discrimination both in patients and relatives. Finally, these findings lend support to the notion that cortical markers of facial discrimination can be validly considered as vulnerability markers.
KW - Biomarker
KW - Facial emotion discrimination
KW - Facial processing
KW - N170
KW - Schizophrenia multiplex families
KW - Structural processing
KW - Valence
KW - Words
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84856443596&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.psychres.2011.07.027
DO - 10.1016/j.psychres.2011.07.027
M3 - Article
C2 - 21824666
AN - SCOPUS:84856443596
SN - 0165-1781
VL - 195
SP - 18
EP - 26
JO - Psychiatry Research
JF - Psychiatry Research
IS - 1-2
ER -