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Levy EJ, Foss-Feig J, Isenstein EL, Srihari V, Anticevic A, Naples AJ, McPartland JC. Electrophysiological Studies of Reception of Facial Communication in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Schizophrenia. REVIEW JOURNAL OF AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS 2022; 9:521-554. [PMID: 36568688 PMCID: PMC9783109 DOI: 10.1007/s40489-021-00260-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2020] [Accepted: 04/22/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SZ) are characterized by difficulty with social cognition and atypical reception of facial communication - a key area in the Research Domain Criteria framework. To identify areas of overlap and dissociation between ASD and SZ, we review studies of event-related potentials (ERP) to faces across ASD and SZ populations, focusing on ERPs implicated in social perception: P100, N170, N250, and P300. There were many inconsistent findings across studies; however, replication was strongest for delayed N170 latency in ASD and attenuated N170 amplitude in SZ. These results highlight the challenges of replicating research findings in heterogeneous clinical populations and the need for transdiagnostic research that continuously quantifies behavior and neural activity across neurodevelopmental disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jennifer Foss-Feig
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- Seaver Autism Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
| | | | - Vinod Srihari
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine
| | - Alan Anticevic
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine
- Department of Psychology, Yale University
- Division of Neurogenetics, Neurocomputation, and Neuroimaging, Yale University School of Medicine
| | - Adam J. Naples
- Yale Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine
| | - James C. McPartland
- Department of Psychology, Yale University
- Yale Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine
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Klein HS, Vanneste S, Pinkham AE. The limited effect of neural stimulation on visual attention and social cognition in individuals with schizophrenia. Neuropsychologia 2021; 157:107880. [PMID: 33961863 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107880] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2021] [Revised: 04/15/2021] [Accepted: 04/29/2021] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Research demonstrates a relationship between faulty visual attention and poorer social cognition in schizophrenia. One potential explanatory model suggests abnormal neuromodulation in specific neural networks may result in reduced attention to socially important cues, leading to poorer understanding of another's emotional state or intentions. OBJECTIVE The current study experimentally manipulated neural networks using tDCS to examine this potential causal mechanism. The primary aim was to determine whether stimulation to the right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) improves visual attention, and secondary aims were to determine whether 1) stimulation improves social cognitive performance and 2) visual attention moderates this improved performance. METHOD Using a double-blind crossover design, 69 individuals with schizophrenia underwent both active and sham stimulation to either the rTPJ of the ventral attention network (n = 36) or the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex of the social brain network (dmPFC; n = 33). Following stimulation, participants completed tasks assessing emotion recognition and mentalizing. Concurrent eye tracking assessed visual attention, measuring proportion of time spent attending to areas of interest. RESULTS For emotion recognition, stimulation failed to impact either visual attention or social cognitive task accuracy. Similarly, neurostimulation failed to affect visual attention on the mentalizing task. However, exploratory analyses demonstrated that mentalizing accuracy significantly improved after stimulation to the active comparator, dmPFC, with no improvement after stimulation to rTPJ. CONCLUSION Results demonstrate limited effect of a single stimulation session on visual attention and emotion recognition accuracy but provide initial support for an alternate neural mechanism for mentalizing, highlighting the importance of executive functions over visual attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hans S Klein
- School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA.
| | - Sven Vanneste
- Trinity College Institute for Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
| | - Amy E Pinkham
- School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA; Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, TX,, USA
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3
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Burra N, Kerzel D. Meeting another's gaze shortens subjective time by capturing attention. Cognition 2021; 212:104734. [PMID: 33887652 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104734] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2020] [Revised: 04/09/2021] [Accepted: 04/10/2021] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
Gaze directed at the observer (direct gaze) is an important and highly salient social signal with multiple effects on cognitive processes and behavior. It is disputed whether the effect of direct gaze is caused by attentional capture or increased arousal. Time estimation may provide an answer because attentional capture predicts an underestimation of time whereas arousal predicts an overestimation. In a temporal bisection task, observers were required to classify the duration of a stimulus as short or long. Stimulus duration was selected randomly between 988 and 1479 ms. When gaze was directed at the observer, participants underestimated stimulus duration, suggesting that effects of direct gaze are caused by attentional capture, not increased arousal. Critically, this effect was limited to dynamic stimuli where gaze appeared to move toward the participant. The underestimation was present with stimuli showing a full face, but also with stimuli showing only the eye region, inverted faces and high-contrast eye-like stimuli. However, it was absent with static pictures of full faces and dynamic nonfigurative stimuli. Because the effect of direct gaze depended on motion, which is common in naturalistic scenes, more consideration needs to be given to the ecological validity of stimuli in the study of social attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolas Burra
- Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Education, Université de Genève, Switzerland.
| | - Dirk Kerzel
- Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Education, Université de Genève, Switzerland
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Wolf A, Ueda K, Hirano Y. Recent updates of eye movement abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia: A scoping review. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 2021; 75:82-100. [PMID: 33314465 PMCID: PMC7986125 DOI: 10.1111/pcn.13188] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2020] [Revised: 11/27/2020] [Accepted: 12/09/2020] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
AIM Although eye-tracking technology expands beyond capturing eye data just for the sole purpose of ensuring participants maintain their gaze at the presented fixation cross, gaze technology remains of less importance in clinical research. Recently, impairments in visual information encoding processes indexed by novel gaze metrics have been frequently reported in patients with schizophrenia. This work undertakes a scoping review of research on saccadic dysfunctions and exploratory eye movement deficits among patients with schizophrenia. It gathers promising pieces of evidence of eye movement abnormalities in attention-demanding tasks on the schizophrenia spectrum that have mounted in recent years and their outcomes as potential biological markers. METHODS The protocol was drafted based on PRISMA for scoping review guidelines. Electronic databases were systematically searched to identify articles published between 2010 and 2020 that examined visual processing in patients with schizophrenia and reported eye movement characteristics as potential biomarkers for this mental illness. RESULTS The use of modern eye-tracking instrumentation has been reported by numerous neuroscientific studies to successfully and non-invasively improve the detection of visual information processing impairments among the screened population at risk of and identified with schizophrenia. CONCLUSIONS Eye-tracking technology has the potential to contribute to the process of early intervention and more apparent separation of the diagnostic entities, being put together by the syndrome-based approach to the diagnosis of schizophrenia. However, context-processing paradigms should be conducted and reported in equally accessible publications to build comprehensive models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra Wolf
- International Research Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Fukuoka, Japan.,Department of Human Science, Research Center for Applied Perceptual Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
| | - Kazuo Ueda
- Department of Human Science, Research Center for Applied Perceptual Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
| | - Yoji Hirano
- Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
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Bradley ER, Seitz A, Niles AN, Rankin KP, Mathalon DH, O'Donovan A, Woolley JD. Oxytocin increases eye gaze in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 2019; 212:177-185. [PMID: 31416746 PMCID: PMC6791758 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2019.07.039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2018] [Revised: 05/23/2019] [Accepted: 07/25/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Abnormal eye gaze is common in schizophrenia and linked to functional impairment. The hypothalamic neuropeptide oxytocin modulates visual attention to social stimuli, but its effects on eye gaze in schizophrenia are unknown. We examined visual scanning of faces in men with schizophrenia and neurotypical controls to quantify oxytocin effects on eye gaze. In a randomized, double-blind, crossover study, 33 men with schizophrenia and 39 matched controls received one dose of intranasal oxytocin (40 IU) and placebo on separate testing days. Participants viewed 20 color photographs of faces while their gaze patterns were recorded. We tested for differences in fixation time on the eyes between patients and controls as well as oxytocin effects using linear mixed-effects models. We also tested whether attachment style, symptom severity, and anti-dopaminergic medication dosage moderated oxytocin effects. In the placebo condition, patients showed reduced fixation time on the eyes compared to controls. Oxytocin was associated with an increase in fixation time among patients, but a decrease among controls. Higher attachment anxiety and greater symptom severity predicted increased fixation time on the eyes on oxytocin versus placebo. Anti-dopaminergic medication dosage and attachment avoidance did not impact response to oxytocin. Consistent with findings that oxytocin optimizes processing of social stimuli, intranasal oxytocin enhanced eye gaze in men with schizophrenia. Further work is needed to determine whether changes in eye gaze impact social cognition and functional outcomes. Both attachment anxiety and symptom severity predicted oxytocin response, highlighting the importance of examining potential moderators of oxytocin effects in future studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ellen R Bradley
- University of California, San Francisco, CA, United States of America; San Francisco Veteran's Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, United States of America.
| | - Alison Seitz
- University of California, San Francisco, CA, United States of America
| | - Andrea N Niles
- University of California, San Francisco, CA, United States of America; San Francisco Veteran's Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, United States of America
| | | | - Daniel H Mathalon
- University of California, San Francisco, CA, United States of America; San Francisco Veteran's Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, United States of America
| | - Aoife O'Donovan
- University of California, San Francisco, CA, United States of America; San Francisco Veteran's Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, United States of America
| | - Joshua D Woolley
- University of California, San Francisco, CA, United States of America; San Francisco Veteran's Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, United States of America
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Restricted attention to social cues in schizophrenia patients. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 2016; 266:649-61. [PMID: 27305925 DOI: 10.1007/s00406-016-0705-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2015] [Accepted: 06/02/2016] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Deficits of psychosocial functioning are a robust finding in schizophrenia. Research on social cognition may open a new avenue for the development of effective interventions. As a correlate of social perceptive information processing deficits, schizophrenia patients (SZP) show deviant gaze behavior (GB) while viewing emotional faces. As understanding of a social environment requires gathering complex social information, our study aimed at investigating the gaze behavior of SZP related to social interactions and its impact on the level of social and role functioning. GB of 32 SZP and 37 healthy control individuals (HCI) was investigated with a high-resolution eye tracker during an unguided viewing of 12 complex pictures of social interaction scenes. Regarding whole pictures, SZP showed a shorter scanpath length, fewer fixations and a shorter mean distance between fixations. Furthermore, SZP exhibited fewer and shorter fixations on faces, but not on the socially informative bodies nor on the background, suggesting a cue-specific abnormality. Logistic regression with bootstrapping yielded a model including two GB parameters; a subsequent ROC curve analysis indicated an excellent ability of group discrimination (AUC .85). Face-related GB aberrations correlated with lower social and role functioning and with delusional thinking, but not with negative symptoms. Training of spontaneous integration of face-related social information seems promising to enable a holistic perception of social information, which may in turn improve social and role functioning. The observed ability to discriminate SZP from HCI warrants further research on the predictive validity of GB in psychosis risk prediction.
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Facial affect recognition in body dysmorphic disorder versus obsessive-compulsive disorder: An eye-tracking study. J Anxiety Disord 2015; 35:49-59. [PMID: 26363226 DOI: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2015.08.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2014] [Revised: 08/12/2015] [Accepted: 08/18/2015] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is characterised by repetitive behaviours and/or mental acts occurring in response to preoccupations with perceived defects or flaws in physical appearance (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). This study aimed to investigate facial affect recognition in BDD using an integrated eye-tracking paradigm. METHOD Participants were 21 BDD patients, 19 obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients and 21 healthy controls (HC), who were age-, sex-, and IQ-matched. Stimuli were from the Pictures of Facial Affect (Ekman & Friesen, 1975), and outcome measures were affect recognition accuracy as well as spatial and temporal scanpath parameters. RESULTS Relative to OCD and HC groups, BDD patients demonstrated significantly poorer facial affect perception and an angry recognition bias. An atypical scanning strategy encompassing significantly more blinks, fewer fixations of extended mean durations, higher mean saccade amplitudes, and less visual attention devoted to salient facial features was found. CONCLUSIONS Patients with BDD were substantially impaired in the scanning of faces, and unable to extract affect-related information, likely indicating deficits in basic perceptual operations.
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8
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Deficient gaze pattern during virtual multiparty conversation in patients with schizophrenia. Comput Biol Med 2014; 49:60-6. [DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2014.03.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2013] [Revised: 03/08/2014] [Accepted: 03/28/2014] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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Sprenger A, Friedrich M, Nagel M, Schmidt CS, Moritz S, Lencer R. Advanced analysis of free visual exploration patterns in schizophrenia. Front Psychol 2013; 4:737. [PMID: 24130547 PMCID: PMC3795347 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00737] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2013] [Accepted: 09/23/2013] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: Visual scanpath analyses provide important information about attention allocation and attention shifting during visual exploration of social situations. This study investigated whether patients with schizophrenia simply show restricted free visual exploration behavior reflected by reduced saccade frequency and increased fixation duration or whether patients use qualitatively different exploration strategies than healthy controls. Methods: Scanpaths of 32 patients with schizophrenia and age-matched 33 healthy controls were assessed while participants freely explored six photos of daily life situations (20 s/photo) evaluated for cognitive complexity and emotional strain. Using fixation and saccade parameters, we compared temporal changes in exploration behavior, cluster analyses, attentional landscapes, and analyses of scanpath similarities between both groups. Results: We found fewer fixation clusters, longer fixation durations within a cluster, fewer changes between clusters, and a greater increase of fixation duration over time in patients compared to controls. Scanpath patterns and attentional landscapes in patients also differed significantly from those of controls. Generally, cognitive complexity and emotional strain had significant effects on visual exploration behavior. This effect was similar in both groups as were physical properties of fixation locations. Conclusions: Longer attention allocation to a given feature in a scene and less attention shifts in patients suggest a more focal processing mode compared to a more ambient exploration strategy in controls. These visual exploration alterations were present in patients independently of cognitive complexity, emotional strain or physical properties of visual cues implying that they represent a rather general deficit. Despite this impairment, patients were able to adapt their scanning behavior to changes in cognitive complexity and emotional strain similar to controls.
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Giersch A, Wilquin H, Capa RL, Delevoye-Turrell YN. Combined visual and motor disorganization in patients with schizophrenia. Front Psychol 2013; 4:620. [PMID: 24065934 PMCID: PMC3776573 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00620] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2013] [Accepted: 08/23/2013] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Cognitive impairments are difficult to relate to clinical symptoms in schizophrenia, partly due to insufficient knowledge on how cognitive impairments interact with one another. Here, we devised a new sequential pointing task requiring both visual organization and motor sequencing. Six circles were presented simultaneously on a touch screen around a fixation point. Participants pointed with the finger each circle one after the other, in synchrony with auditory tones. We used an alternating rhythmic 300/600 ms pattern so that participants performed pairs of taps separated by short intervals of 300 ms. Visual organization was manipulated by using line-segments that grouped the circles two by two, yielding three pairs of connected circles, and three pairs of unconnected circles that belonged to different pairs. This led to three experimental conditions. In the "congruent condition," the pairs of taps had to be executed on circles grouped by connecters. In the "non congruent condition," they were to be executed on the unconnected circles that belonged to different pairs. In a neutral condition, there were no connecters. Twenty two patients with schizophrenia with mild symptoms and 22 control participants performed a series of 30 taps in each condition. Tap pairs were counted as errors when the produced rhythm was inverted (expected rhythm 600/300 = 2; inversed rhythm <1). Error rates in patients with a high level of clinical disorganization were significantly higher in the non-congruent condition than in the two other conditions, contrary to controls and the remaining patients. The tap-tone asynchrony increased in the presence of connecters in both patient groups, but not in the controls. Patients appeared not to integrate the visual organization during the planning phase of action, leading to a large difficulty during motor execution, especially in those patients revealing difficulties in visual organization. Visual motor tapping tasks may help detect those subgroups of patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne Giersch
- Department of Psychiatry, INSERM U1114, University Hospital of Strasbourg Strasbourg, France
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Landgraf S, Osterheider M. "To see or not to see: that is the question." The "Protection-Against-Schizophrenia" (PaSZ) model: evidence from congenital blindness and visuo-cognitive aberrations. Front Psychol 2013; 4:352. [PMID: 23847557 PMCID: PMC3696841 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00352] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2013] [Accepted: 05/30/2013] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The causes of schizophrenia are still unknown. For the last 100 years, though, both “absent” and “perfect” vision have been associated with a lower risk for schizophrenia. Hence, vision itself and aberrations in visual functioning may be fundamental to the development and etiological explanations of the disorder. In this paper, we present the “Protection-Against-Schizophrenia” (PaSZ) model, which grades the risk for developing schizophrenia as a function of an individual's visual capacity. We review two vision perspectives: (1) “Absent” vision or how congenital blindness contributes to PaSZ and (2) “perfect” vision or how aberrations in visual functioning are associated with psychosis. First, we illustrate that, although congenitally blind and sighted individuals acquire similar world representations, blind individuals compensate for behavioral shortcomings through neurofunctional and multisensory reorganization. These reorganizations may indicate etiological explanations for their PaSZ. Second, we demonstrate that visuo-cognitive impairments are fundamental for the development of schizophrenia. Deteriorated visual information acquisition and processing contribute to higher-order cognitive dysfunctions and subsequently to schizophrenic symptoms. Finally, we provide different specific therapeutic recommendations for individuals who suffer from visual impairments (who never developed “normal” vision) and individuals who suffer from visual deterioration (who previously had “normal” visual skills). Rather than categorizing individuals as “normal” and “mentally disordered,” the PaSZ model uses a continuous scale to represent psychiatrically relevant human behavior. This not only provides a scientific basis for more fine-grained diagnostic assessments, earlier detection, and more appropriate therapeutic assignments, but it also outlines a trajectory for unraveling the causes of abnormal psychotic human self- and world-perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steffen Landgraf
- Department for Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, District Hospital, University Regensburg Regensburg, Germany ; Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin Berlin, Germany
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Looking just below the eyes is optimal across face recognition tasks. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2012; 109:E3314-23. [PMID: 23150543 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1214269109] [Citation(s) in RCA: 156] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
When viewing a human face, people often look toward the eyes. Maintaining good eye contact carries significant social value and allows for the extraction of information about gaze direction. When identifying faces, humans also look toward the eyes, but it is unclear whether this behavior is solely a byproduct of the socially important eye movement behavior or whether it has functional importance in basic perceptual tasks. Here, we propose that gaze behavior while determining a person's identity, emotional state, or gender can be explained as an adaptive brain strategy to learn eye movement plans that optimize performance in these evolutionarily important perceptual tasks. We show that humans move their eyes to locations that maximize perceptual performance determining the identity, gender, and emotional state of a face. These optimal fixation points, which differ moderately across tasks, are predicted correctly by a Bayesian ideal observer that integrates information optimally across the face but is constrained by the decrease in resolution and sensitivity from the fovea toward the visual periphery (foveated ideal observer). Neither a model that disregards the foveated nature of the visual system and makes fixations on the local region with maximal information, nor a model that makes center-of-gravity fixations correctly predict human eye movements. Extension of the foveated ideal observer framework to a large database of real-world faces shows that the optimality of these strategies generalizes across the population. These results suggest that the human visual system optimizes face recognition performance through guidance of eye movements not only toward but, more precisely, just below the eyes.
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Giersch A, van Assche M, Capa RL, Marrer C, Gounot D. Patients with schizophrenia do not preserve automatic grouping when mentally re-grouping figures: shedding light on an ignored difficulty. Front Psychol 2012; 3:274. [PMID: 22912621 PMCID: PMC3421431 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00274] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2012] [Accepted: 07/17/2012] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Looking at a pair of objects is easy when automatic grouping mechanisms bind these objects together, but visual exploration can also be more flexible. It is possible to mentally “re-group” two objects that are not only separate but belong to different pairs of objects. “Re-grouping” is in conflict with automatic grouping, since it entails a separation of each item from the set it belongs to. This ability appears to be impaired in patients with schizophrenia. Here we check if this impairment is selective, which would suggest a dissociation between grouping and “re-grouping,” or if it impacts on usual, automatic grouping, which would call for a better understanding of the interactions between automatic grouping and “re-grouping.” Sixteen outpatients with schizophrenia and healthy controls had to identify two identical and contiguous target figures within a display of circles and squares alternating around a fixation point. Eye-tracking was used to check central fixation. The target pair could be located in the same or separate hemifields. Identical figures were grouped by a connector (grouped automatically) or not (to be re-grouped). Attention modulation of automatic grouping was tested by manipulating the proportion of connected and unconnected targets, thus prompting subjects to focalize on either connected or unconnected pairs. Both groups were sensitive to automatic grouping in most conditions, but patients were unusually slowed down for connected targets while focalizing on unconnected pairs. In addition, this unusual effect occurred only when targets were presented within the same hemifield. Patients and controls differed on this asymmetry between within- and across-hemifield presentation, suggesting that patients with schizophrenia do not re-group figures in the same way as controls do. We discuss possible implications on how “re-grouping” ties in with ongoing, automatic perception in healthy volunteers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne Giersch
- INSERM U666, Department of Psychiatry I, Centre Hospitalier Régional de Strasbourg Strasbourg, France
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Landgraf S, Amado I, Brucks M, Krueger F, Krebs MO, Meer EVD. Inflexible information acquisition strategies mediate visuo-spatial reasoning in stabilized schizophrenia patients. World J Biol Psychiatry 2011; 12:608-19. [PMID: 21288070 DOI: 10.3109/15622975.2010.544329] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Cognitive deficits are of fundamental importance to the clinical picture of schizophrenia and are on the verge to be included as diagnostic criteria in the DSM-V. While focusing on information processing deficits, no emphasis has been put on whether patients' deficits can be accounted for by maladaptive information acquisition strategy deployment. METHODS We tested 24 stabilized patients with schizophrenia and 25 matched controls in a visuo-spatial analogy task with graded difficulty. Eye movement recordings served to identify information acquisition strategies. RESULTS Patients compared to healthy controls showed slower reaction times in the easiest condition and higher error rates in the more difficult conditions. Eye movement recordings illustrated that overall mean fixation duration increased with increasing task difficulty in healthy controls only. Further, patients deployed a more efficient strategy ("constructive matching") less often than healthy controls in the easier conditions. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that information acquisition strategies mediate visuo-spatial cognitive performance in schizophrenia. Patients adopt a less efficient strategy independently of task difficulty indicated by a characteristic behavioural pattern. Our results point to a powerful tool of improving patients' performance in cognitively demanding tasks by training them in more flexible cognitive (e.g., information acquisition) strategy deployment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steffen Landgraf
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institute of Psychology, Berlin, Germany.
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Current visual scanpath research: a review of investigations into the psychotic, anxiety, and mood disorders. Compr Psychiatry 2011; 52:567-79. [PMID: 21333977 DOI: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2010.12.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2010] [Revised: 12/06/2010] [Accepted: 12/18/2010] [Indexed: 01/25/2023] Open
Abstract
The human visual system is comprised of an array of complex organs, which jointly decode information from visible light to construct a meaningful representation of the surrounding environment. The study of visual scanpaths transpired in a bid to enhance our understanding of the role of eye movements underpinning adaptive functioning as well as psychopathology and was further aided by the advent of modern eye-tracking techniques. This review provides a background to the nature of visual scanpaths, followed by an overview and critique of eye movement studies in specific clinical populations involving the psychotic, anxiety, and mood disorders, and concludes with suggested directions for future research. We performed a Medline and PsycInfo literature search, based on variations of the terms "visual scanpath," "eye-tracking," and "eye movements," in relation to articles published from 1986 to the present. Eye-tracking studies in schizophrenia mostly concurred with the existence of a "restricted" scanning strategy, characterized by fewer number of fixations of increased durations, with shorter scanpath lengths, and a marked avoidance of salient features, especially in relation to facial emotion perception. This has been interpreted as likely reflecting dual impairments in configural processing as well as gestalt perception. Findings from the anxiety and mood disorders have conversely failed to yield coherent results, with further research warranted to provide corroborating evidence and overcome identified methodological limitations. Future studies should also look toward applying similar techniques to related disorders as well as conducting parallel neuroimaging investigations to elucidate potential neurobiological correlates.
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Landgraf S, Amado I, Purkhart R, Ries J, Olié JP, van der Meer E. Visuo-spatial cognition in schizophrenia: confirmation of a preference for local information processing. Schizophr Res 2011; 127:163-70. [PMID: 21186098 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2010.11.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2010] [Revised: 11/18/2010] [Accepted: 11/29/2010] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
During visuo-spatial cognitive tasks, patients with schizophrenia show a preference for local (detailed) rather than global (holistic) information processing. The efficiency of such information processing is influenced by task difficulty. We tested whether patients' preference for local processing would persist if task demands favored global or local processing. Twenty-four stabilized patients with schizophrenia (SZ) and 25 healthy, matched controls (C) were tested in a mental mirroring task. Task difficulty was manipulated while stimulus surface structures were maintained unchanged. Information processing was assessed by recording eye movements. SZ were slower than C in the easiest condition but they made more errors than C in the more difficult conditions. Further, SZ did not adapt their average fixation duration to task demands resulting in longer fixation duration in the easiest condition and shorter fixation duration in the most difficult condition compared to C. These findings suggest that patients employ local information processing even when it is maladaptive for task demands. That is, patients do not adapt their fixation duration to task demands implicating (i) a preference for scanning local stimuli features and (ii) information processing inflexibility. These features need to be taken into account when evaluating visuo-spatial cognitive performance in schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- S Landgraf
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institute of Psychology, Rudower Chaussee 18, 12489 Berlin, Germany.
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Combs DR, Chapman D, Waguspack J, Basso MR, Penn DL. Attention shaping as a means to improve emotion perception deficits in outpatients with schizophrenia and impaired controls. Schizophr Res 2011; 127:151-6. [PMID: 20570490 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2010.05.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2010] [Revised: 04/30/2010] [Accepted: 05/05/2010] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Deficits in emotion perception are common in people with schizophrenia and current research has focused on improving these deficits. In our previous research, we demonstrated that directing attention to salient facial features via attention shaping can improve these deficits among inpatients. In this study, we examined the efficacy of an enhanced attention shaping program that contains 192 emotional expressions from which 25 are randomly presented for training. We extended our previous work by using repeated administrations of the shaping intervention and testing its effect in outpatients with schizophrenia and impaired controls. Fifteen participants with schizophrenia and fourteen college student controls with emotion perception deficits were randomly assigned to 1, 3 or 5 sessions of attention shaping. Participants completed 2 outcome measures of emotion perception, the FEIT and BLERT, not presented during the training, and underwent eye tracking at pre and post-tests. All conditions and groups improved, but the largest improvements on the BLERT and FEIT were found for persons assigned to the 5 session condition. Performance on the shaping program was positively correlated with the two outcome measures of emotion perception. There was less support for changes in visual scanning of faces as there was a relative reduction in total scanning time from pre-test to post-test. Results are interpreted in terms of the efficacy of attention shaping as a means to improve emotion perception deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dennis R Combs
- University of Texas at Tyler, Department of Psychology, 3900 University Blvd., Tyler, TX 75799, United States.
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Choi SH, Ku J, Han K, Kim E, Kim SI, Park J, Kim JJ. Deficits in eye gaze during negative social interactions in patients with schizophrenia. J Nerv Ment Dis 2010; 198:829-35. [PMID: 21048475 DOI: 10.1097/nmd.0b013e3181f97c0d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Impaired social functioning has been reported in patients with schizophrenia. This study aimed to examine characteristics of interpersonal behaviors in patients with schizophrenia during various social interactions using the virtual reality system. Twenty-six patients and 26 controls engaged in the virtual conversation tasks, including 3 positive and 3 negative emotion-laden conversations. Eye gaze and other behavioral parameters were recorded during the listening and answering phases. The amount of eye gaze was assessed as smaller in the patients than in the controls. A significant interaction effect of group status and emotional type was found for the listening phase. The amount of eye gaze in the patients inversely correlated with self-rated scores of assertiveness for the listening phase. These results suggest that the patients displayed inadequate levels of augmentations in eye gaze during negative emotional situations. These deficits should be considered in the treatment and social skills training for patients with schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Soo-Hee Choi
- Department of Psychiatry, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Seoul, Korea
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Watson KK, Werling DM, Zucker NL, Platt ML. Altered social reward and attention in anorexia nervosa. Front Psychol 2010; 1:36. [PMID: 21887145 PMCID: PMC3157932 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2010] [Accepted: 07/07/2010] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Dysfunctional social reward and social attention are present in a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders including autism, schizophrenia, and social anxiety. Here we show that similar social reward and attention dysfunction are present in anorexia nervosa (AN), a disorder defined by avoidance of food and extreme weight loss. We measured the implicit reward value of social stimuli for female participants with (n = 11) and without (n = 11) AN using an econometric choice task and also tracked gaze patterns during free viewing of images of female faces and bodies. As predicted, the reward value of viewing bodies varied inversely with observed body weight for women with anorexia but not control women, in contrast with their explicit ratings of attractiveness. Surprisingly, women with AN, unlike control women, did not find female faces rewarding and avoided looking at both the face and eyes – independent of observed body weight. These findings suggest comorbid dysfunction in the neural circuits mediating gustatory and social reward in anorexia nervosa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karli K Watson
- Department of Neurobiology, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, and Center for Neuroeconomics, Duke University Durham, NC, USA
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Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW Recent studies of face processing deficits in people with schizophrenia have begun to shed light on the answers to four important questions: What is the major component of the deficit? Does it have a neurobiological basis? When does it appear in development? Can it be remediated? RECENT FINDINGS Eye contact is especially important for recognizing fearful expressions. Patients with schizophrenia avoid gazing at important facial feature regions (especially eyes) and are particularly impaired in recognizing fear. Patients were thought to exhibit decreased amygdala activity when viewing fearful faces; however, more recent studies have revealed limbic hyperactivity in patients when viewing nonfearful and fearful faces compared with baseline. Amygdala hyperactivity can also be detected when people with schizophrenia fail to appropriately recognize fear faces. Studies indicate that there are developmental changes in amygdala activation, including limbic hyperactivity to fear faces during adolescence, a critical time for the onset of schizophrenia. New treatment strategies can increase gaze to the eye region, which could improve emotional recognition in patients. SUMMARY These findings suggest that there may soon be more options for overcoming specific problems in emotional face evaluation in people who have schizophrenia.
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Winter M, Franck N. Remédiation cognitive et informations faciales. EVOLUTION PSYCHIATRIQUE 2009. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evopsy.2008.12.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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Combs DR, Tosheva A, Penn DL, Basso MR, Wanner JL, Laib K. Attentional-shaping as a means to improve emotion perception deficits in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 2008; 105:68-77. [PMID: 18585899 PMCID: PMC2647015 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2008.05.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2008] [Revised: 05/16/2008] [Accepted: 05/21/2008] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Inability to recognize emotional expressions of others (emotion perception) is one of the most common impairments observed among individuals with schizophrenia. Such deficits presumably contribute much to the social dysfunction characteristic of schizophrenia. This study examined the efficacy of a novel attentional-shaping intervention to improve emotion perception abilities. Sixty participants with schizophrenia were randomly assigned to one of three intervention conditions: 1) attentional-shaping, 2) contingent monetary reinforcement, or 3) repeated practice. Participants completed the Face Emotion Identification Test (FEIT) at pre-test, intervention, post-test, and one week follow-up. Participants also completed the Bell-Lysaker Emotion Recognition Test (BLERT) and the Social Behavior Scale at pre-test and follow-up to measure generalization. The results showed that the attentional-shaping condition had significantly higher scores on the FEIT at intervention, post-test, and follow-up compared to monetary reinforcement and repeated practice. Improvement was also found on the BLERT and a trend was found for improved social behaviors at one-week follow-up. Results will be discussed in terms of face scanning and attentional deficits present in schizophrenia and potential uses of this intervention in the remediation of emotion perception deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dennis R Combs
- University of Texas at Tyler, Department of Psychology, 3900 University Blvd., Tyler, TX 75799, United States.
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Aberrant pattern of scanning in prosopagnosia reflects impaired face processing. Brain Cogn 2008; 69:262-8. [PMID: 18819739 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2008.07.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2007] [Revised: 07/30/2008] [Accepted: 07/31/2008] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Visual scanpath recording was used to investigate the information processing strategies used by a prosopagnosic patient, SC, when viewing faces. Compared to controls, SC showed an aberrant pattern of scanning, directing attention away from the internal configuration of facial features (eyes, nose) towards peripheral regions (hair, forehead) of the face. The results suggest that SC's face recognition deficit can be linked to an inability to assemble an accurate and unified face percept due to an abnormal allocation of attention away from the internal face region. Extraction of stimulus attributes necessary for face identity recognition is compromised by an aberrant face scanning pattern.
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Remediation of facial emotion perception in schizophrenia: concomitant changes in visual attention. Schizophr Res 2008; 103:248-56. [PMID: 18565733 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2008.04.033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 87] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2007] [Revised: 04/23/2008] [Accepted: 04/28/2008] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
The study examined changes in visual attention in schizophrenia following training with a social-cognitive remediation package designed to improve facial emotion recognition (the Micro-Expression Training Tool; METT). Forty out-patients with schizophrenia were randomly allocated to active training (METT; n=26), or repeated exposure (RE; n=14); all completed an emotion recognition task with concurrent eye movement recording. Emotion recognition accuracy was significantly improved in the METT group, and this effect was maintained after one week. Immediately following training, the METT group directed more eye movements within feature areas of faces (i.e., eyes, nose, mouth) compared to the RE group. The number of fixations directed to feature areas of faces was positively associated with emotion recognition accuracy prior to training. After one week, the differences between METT and RE groups in viewing feature areas of faces were reduced to trends. However, within group analyses of the METT group revealed significantly increased number of fixations to, and dwell time within, feature areas following training which were maintained after one week. These results provide the first evidence that improvements in emotion recognition following METT training are associated with changes in visual attention to the feature areas of emotional faces. These findings support the contribution of visual attention abnormalities to emotion recognition impairment in schizophrenia, and suggest that one mechanism for improving emotion recognition involves re-directing visual attention to relevant features of emotional faces.
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Firestone A, Turk-Browne NB, Ryan JD. Age-related deficits in face recognition are related to underlying changes in scanning behavior. AGING NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITION 2008; 14:594-607. [PMID: 18038358 DOI: 10.1080/13825580600899717] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
Previous studies demonstrating age-related impairments in recognition memory for faces are suggestive of underlying differences in face processing. To study these differences, we monitored eye movements while younger and older adults viewed younger and older faces. Compared to the younger group, older adults showed increased sampling of facial features, and more transitions. However, their scanning behavior was most similar to the younger group when looking at older faces. Moreover, while older adults exhibited worse recognition memory than younger adults overall, their memory was more accurate for older faces. These findings suggest that age-related differences in recognition memory for faces may be related to changes in scanning behavior, and that older adults may use social group status as a compensatory processing strategy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alison Firestone
- The Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Irani F, Platek SM, Panyavin IS, Calkins ME, Kohler C, Siegel SJ, Schachter M, Gur RE, Gur RC. Self-face recognition and theory of mind in patients with schizophrenia and first-degree relatives. Schizophr Res 2006; 88:151-60. [PMID: 16979876 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2006.07.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 129] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2006] [Revised: 07/02/2006] [Accepted: 07/07/2006] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The hypothesized relationship between theory of mind (ToM) and self-face recognition as well as its potential genetic associations has not been previously explored in patients with schizophrenia and in first-degree relatives with schizotypal personality traits. METHOD Ten patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, 10 of their first-degree relatives and 10 healthy controls were included. To assess self-face recognition (SFR), participants were presented images of faces of themselves and others and asked to make rapid 'unfamiliar', 'familiar' and 'self' judgments. As a measure of ToM, subjects were administered the Revised Mind in the Eyes Test (MET [Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Hill, J., Raste, Y., and Plumb, I., 2001. The "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test revised version: a study with normal adults, and adults with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 42(2), 241-251.]). Schizotypal characteristics in relatives and controls were assessed using a modified version of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ [Raine, A., 1991. The SPQ: a scale for the assessment of schizotypal personality based on DSM-III-R criteria. Schizophrenia Bulletin 17(4), 555-564.]). RESULTS Patients took longer and were less accurate on the SFR task than their relatives who in turn performed worse than healthy controls. Specific ToM deficits in schizophrenia were replicated. There was a relationship between accuracy rates on the MET and SFR tasks. High levels of schizotypal traits such as social anxiety, constricted affect and no close friends were important for both tasks. CONCLUSIONS Face recognition deficits and ToM deficits in schizophrenia are apparent. The critical influence of high levels of select schizotypal traits is also highlighted. A deficit in relatives of schizophrenia patients raises the possibility that ToM and face recognition deficits may be candidate endophenotypes for schizophrenia. Support for the hypothesized link between ToM and face recognition is provided.
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Affiliation(s)
- Farzin Irani
- Department of Psychology, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
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Combs DR, Tosheva A, Wanner J, Basso MR. Remediation of emotion perception deficits in schizophrenia: the use of attentional prompts. Schizophr Res 2006; 87:340-1. [PMID: 16809024 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2006.05.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2006] [Revised: 04/26/2006] [Accepted: 05/03/2006] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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Bestelmeyer PEG, Tatler BW, Phillips LH, Fraser G, Benson PJ, St Clair D. Global visual scanning abnormalities in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Schizophr Res 2006; 87:212-22. [PMID: 16860975 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2006.06.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 61] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2006] [Revised: 06/07/2006] [Accepted: 06/08/2006] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Visual scanning of face images is widely reported to be abnormal in schizophrenia. This impaired processing has been proposed to be partly responsible for patients' disturbance in social interactions. The present study was designed to determine whether abnormal scanning is specific to images with social content or extends to other types of stimuli. Individuals with schizophrenia (n=22), bipolar disorder (n=19) and healthy controls (n=37) were asked to view a series of 28 images with or without socially important content (i.e. faces, landscapes, fractals and noise patterns) while their eye movements were recorded video-oculographically. Temporal and spatial characteristics of scan paths were compared for each patient group and picture type. Independent of image content, patients with schizophrenia exhibited fewer fixations, longer fixation duration, longer saccade duration and peak velocity, and smaller saccade amplitude compared with healthy controls. Patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder did not differ significantly from one another on any of the temporal variables recorded. Fixation location distributions of participants with schizophrenia differed significantly from that of healthy controls on all picture types and from patients with bipolar disorder on all but face images. Abnormal scanning in schizophrenia and also bipolar disorder was independent of stimulus type and therefore reflects a global visual scanning impairment not specific to faces. Spatial scanning characteristics but not temporal ones may serve as biomarkers in the functional psychoses.
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Marsh PJ, Williams LM. ADHD and schizophrenia phenomenology: visual scanpaths to emotional faces as a potential psychophysiological marker? Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2006; 30:651-65. [PMID: 16466794 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.11.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2005] [Accepted: 11/28/2005] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Commonalities in the clinical phenomenology and psychopharmacology of ADHD and schizophrenia are reviewed. The potential of psychostimulants to produce psychotic symptoms emphasizes the need for objective psychophysiological distinctions between these disorders. Impaired emotion perception in both disorders is discussed. It is proposed that visual scanpaths to facial expressions of emotion might prove a potentially useful psychophysiological distinction between ADHD and schizophrenia. There is consistent evidence that both facial affect recognition and scanpaths to facial expressions are impaired in schizophrenia, with emerging empirical evidence showing that facial affect recognition is impaired in ADHD also. Brain imaging studies show reduced activity in the medial prefrontal and limbic (amygdala) brain regions required to process emotional faces in schizophrenia, but suggest more localized loss of activity in these regions in ADHD. As amygdala activity in particular has been linked to effective visual scanning of face stimuli, it is postulated that condition-specific breakdowns in these brain regions that subserve emotional behavior might manifest as distinct scanpath aberrations to facial expressions of emotion in schizophrenia and ADHD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pamela J Marsh
- Western Clinical School, The Brain Dynamics Centre, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
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Valkonen-Korhonen M, Tarkka IM, Pääkkönen A, Kremlacek J, Lehtonen J, Partanen J, Karhu J. Electrical brain responses evoked by human faces in acute psychosis. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2005; 23:277-86. [PMID: 15820635 DOI: 10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2004.10.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2003] [Revised: 10/29/2004] [Accepted: 10/29/2004] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Patients with schizophrenia are known to have behavioral deficits in recognizing faces and facial expressions. However, the ability to process simple visual stimuli appears to be intact in first-episode psychosis. The aim of this study was to examine complex visual processing, especially the event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by human faces, in early psychosis. Never-medicated patients in acute psychosis (n=18) were compared with healthy controls (n=19). Photographs of human faces were presented in a classic oddball paradigm requiring a motor response to a smiling face. Cerebral sources of ERPs were analyzed of the averaged responses, using minimum norm estimates, and dipole models. Face-sensitive response at 145 ms after the face stimuli was of significantly higher amplitude in our never-medicated patients, and the activity distribution between the groups was clearly different. At the early phase of a psychotic illness, these alterations in face-related neuronal network processes represent perceptual disturbance in psychosis, possibly including state and trait, as well as potential physiological compensatory features.
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Wong B, Cronin-Golomb A, Neargarder S. Patterns of Visual Scanning as Predictors of Emotion Identification in Normal Aging. Neuropsychology 2005; 19:739-49. [PMID: 16351349 DOI: 10.1037/0894-4105.19.6.739] [Citation(s) in RCA: 120] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Emotion identification appears to decline with age, and deficient visual scanning may contribute to this effect. Eye movements of 20 older adults (OAs) and 20 younger adults (YAs) with normal saccades were recorded while viewing facial expressions. OAs made fewer fixations overall, and they made a higher proportion of fixations to the lower halves of faces. Topographical distribution of fixations predicted better OA accuracy for identifying disgust than other negative emotions. Impaired OA accuracy for fear and anger was specific to vision, with normal identification of these emotions in the auditory domain. Age-related frontal-lobe atrophy may affect the integrity of the frontal eye fields, with consequent scanning abnormalities that contribute to difficulties in identifying certain emotions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bonnie Wong
- Department of Psychology, Boston University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
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Horley K, Williams LM, Gonsalvez C, Gordon E. Face to face: visual scanpath evidence for abnormal processing of facial expressions in social phobia. Psychiatry Res 2004; 127:43-53. [PMID: 15261704 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2004.02.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 215] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2003] [Revised: 12/30/2003] [Accepted: 02/23/2004] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Cognitive models of social phobia propose that cognitive biases and fears regarding negative evaluation by others result in preferential attention to interpersonal sources of threat. These fears may account for the hypervigilance and avoidance of eye contact commonly reported by clinicians. This study provides the first objective examination of threat-related processing in social phobia. It was predicted that hyperscanning (hypervigilance) and eye avoidance would be most apparent in social phobia for overt expressions of threat. An infrared corneal reflection technique was used to record visual scanpaths in response to angry, sad, and happy vs. neutral facial expressions. Twenty-two subjects with social phobia were compared with age- and sex-matched normal controls. As predicted, social phobia subjects displayed hyperscanning, (increased scanpath length) and avoidance (reduced foveal fixations) of the eyes, particularly evident for angry faces. The results could not be explained by either medication or co-morbid depression. These findings are consistent with theories emphasising the role of information processing biases in social phobia, and show promise in the application to treatment evaluation in this disorder.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaye Horley
- Department of Psychology, University of Wollongong 2522, Australia.
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Green MJ, Phillips ML. Social threat perception and the evolution of paranoia. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2004; 28:333-42. [PMID: 15225975 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2004.03.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 205] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2003] [Revised: 03/04/2004] [Accepted: 03/04/2004] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Rapid and efficient judgments about the significance of social threat are important for species survival and may recruit specialized neurocognitive systems, consistent with biological models of threat processing. We review cognitive, psychophysiological, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging evidence in support of specialized neural networks subserving the processing of facial displays of threat. Cognitive research suggests that faces depicting anger are detected quickly when presented amongst other facial expressions, on the basis of distinguishing facial features. Psychophysiological investigations using visual scanpath techniques provide evidence for increased foveal attention to facial features of threat-related expressions (anger, fear), which may facilitate rapid detection and subsequent appraisal of the significance of threat (such as the direction of impending threat). Neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies implicate a primary role for the amygdale and pre-frontal cortices in interpreting signs of danger from facial expressions and other social stimuli. Subtle disturbances in these neurocognitive systems underlying efficient threat detection (manifesting in attentional biases and aberrant neural activity) may result in abnormally heightened perception of social threat, as seen in clinical levels of social anxiety and/or persecutory delusions in schizophrenia. Clinical states of paranoia may therefore reflect normal variation (i.e. biases) in the adaptive mechanisms which have evolved, in the Darwinian sense, to facilitate efficient threat detection in humans. As such, clinical levels of paranoia may represent the inevitable cost of efficient threat perception--or 'justified' suspicion--that is necessary for survival of the human species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melissa J Green
- Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science, Division of Linguistics and Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, 2109, Australia.
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Williams LM, Loughland CM, Green MJ, Harris AWF, Gordon E. Emotion perception in schizophrenia: an eye movement study comparing the effectiveness of risperidone vs. haloperidol. Psychiatry Res 2003; 120:13-27. [PMID: 14500110 DOI: 10.1016/s0165-1781(03)00166-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
We used a psychophysiological marker of visual attention (the visual scanpath) to investigate the effects of atypical (risperidone) vs. typical (haloperidol) antipsychotic medication on facial emotion perception in schizophrenia (n=28) and healthy control (n=28) groups. Of the schizophrenia subjects, 15 were prescribed risperidone. Visual scanpaths to 'happy', 'sad' and 'neutral' faces were recorded using video-oculography, and concurrent emotion-recognition accuracy was assessed using multiple-option tasks. Compared to control subjects, both schizophrenia subgroups showed a restriction in visual scanning (reduced total fixation number and decreased scanpath length). Haloperidol-treated schizophrenia subjects exhibited an additional and consistent pattern of reduced attention (fixation) to salient features for neutral and happy. By contrast, risperidone-treated subjects showed a relatively greater attention to salient features for these expressions, in which they did not differ from controls. Recognition accuracy for happy and neutral showed a similar lack of impairment. These findings suggest that risperidone may play a specific role in schizophrenia in the ability to attend to salient features, and to integrate this information into an accurate percept for neutral and positive expressions in particular.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leanne M Williams
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
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Abstract
This study examined visuo-cognitive processing of threat-related (anger, fear) and non-threat faces (happy, sad, neutral) in deluded schizophrenia (n=11), non-deluded schizophrenia (n=8), and healthy control (n=22) participants. Focal analyses examined scanpath aberrations for particular facial expressions in sub-groups of schizophrenia patients determined by the presence or absence of overt delusions. Deluded schizophrenia subjects exhibited significantly fewer fixations of shorter duration for all faces, and fewer fixations of reduced duration to the feature areas of negative facial expressions (anger, sad), compared with healthy controls. Compared with non-deluded schizophrenia subjects, deluded subjects exhibited fewer fixations to fear expressions and more fixations to the feature areas of happy expressions. These findings were revealed in the context of restricted scanning (reduced number and duration of fixations, shorter scanpath length and shorter duration of fixations to facial features) in the entire schizophrenia group (n=19) compared with healthy controls. The findings suggest a controlled attentional bias away from the feature areas of negative facial expressions in deluded schizophrenia, that is, specific to threat-related expressions compared with non-deluded schizophrenia subjects. This controlled bias away from negative social stimuli in deluded schizophrenia is discussed in terms of an attentional style of 'vigilance-avoidance' operating across early and late stages of information processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melissa J Green
- Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2006, Australia.
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Horley K, Williams LM, Gonsalvez C, Gordon E. Social phobics do not see eye to eye: a visual scanpath study of emotional expression processing. J Anxiety Disord 2003; 17:33-44. [PMID: 12464287 DOI: 10.1016/s0887-6185(02)00180-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 209] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
Clinical observation suggests that social phobia is characterised by eye avoidance in social interaction, reflecting an exaggerated social sensitivity. These reports are consistent with cognitive models of social phobia that emphasize the role of interpersonal processing biases. Yet, these observations have not been verified empirically, nor has the psychophysiological basis of eye avoidance been examined. This is the first study to use an objective psychophysiological marker of visual attention (the visual scanpath) to examine directly how social phobia subjects process interpersonal (facial expression) stimuli. An infra-red corneal reflection technique was used to record visual scanpaths in response to neutral, happy and sad face stimuli in 15 subjects with social phobia, and 15 age and sex-matched normal controls. The social phobia subjects showed an avoidance of facial features, particularly the eyes, but extensive scanning of non-features, compared with the controls. These findings suggest that attentional strategies for the active avoidance of salient facial features are an important marker of interpersonal cues in social phobia. Visual scanpath evidence may, therefore, have important implications for clinical intervention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaye Horley
- The Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW 2145, Australia.
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Green MJ, Williams LM, Davidson D. Visual scanpaths and facial affect recognition in delusion-prone individuals: Increased sensitivity to threat? Cogn Neuropsychiatry 2003; 8:19-41. [PMID: 16571548 DOI: 10.1080/713752236] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Using visual scanpaths as a measure of directed attention, we investigated whether delusion-prone individuals would exhibit reduced visual appraisal, and impaired recognition accuracy, for threat-related facial expressions. METHODS 47 psychiatrically healthy individuals completed the Peters et al. Delusions Inventory (PDI) as an index of delusion-proneness; experimental groups of high and low PDI scorers were formed on the basis of a median split. Visual scanpaths were recorded while participants viewed photographs of faces displaying anger, fear, happy, sad, and neutral expressions under a free-viewing condition. Affect recognition accuracy was assessed using a forced-choice response format. RESULTS The high PDI group displayed generally "extended" scanpaths, characterised by increased distances between fixations, for angry, fearful, and happy faces, but exhibited a distinctive pattern of reduced foveal attention (fewer fixations) for facial expressions of anger and fear. Impaired affect recognition accuracy in the high PDI group was most pronounced for fearful faces. Reduced recognition accuracy for fearful faces was associated with longer distances between fixations in the entire group. CONCLUSIONS Delusion-prone individuals displayed a bias of directing attention away from threat-related faces, and a trend toward reduced recognition accuracy for fearful faces, suggesting that these individuals may be particularly sensitive to facial threat.
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Loughland CM, Williams LM, Gordon E. Schizophrenia and affective disorder show different visual scanning behavior for faces: a trait versus state-based distinction? Biol Psychiatry 2002; 52:338-48. [PMID: 12208641 DOI: 10.1016/s0006-3223(02)01356-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 112] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Abnormal visual scanpaths to faces and facial expressions in schizophrenia may underlie schizophrenic subjects' disturbed interpersonal communication. This study is the first to examine the specificity of these impairments to schizophrenia, by including an affective disorder psychiatric control group. METHODS The visual scanpath performance of 65 schizophrenia, 52 affective disordered, and 61 control subjects were compared in two experiments. In the "face recognition" experiment, subjects viewed four identifiable (non-degraded) neutral faces versus four matched non-identifiable (degraded) control faces. In the "facial affect recognition" experiment, subjects viewed positive (happy), negative (sad), and neutral (control) facial emotion stimuli. Concurrent behavioral tasks were face matching (face recognition) and expression matching (facial affect recognition), each under two multiple-choice conditions (7 or 3 options). RESULTS Scanpath disturbances were most apparent in schizophrenia subjects, who maintained a comparatively "restricted" scanpath style to all face stimuli. Schizophrenics subjects also showed the greatest recognition difficulties, particularly for neutral and happy faces. Scanpath parameters for affective disorder subjects differed only from the schizophrenia (but not the control) group, except for attention to facial features where they generally avoided facial features in all expressions and showed the greatest attentional problems of all groups for degraded faces. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that a global restriction of visual scanpaths is specific to schizophrenic psychosis and might be a trait marker for this disorder, whereas scanpath abnormalities in affective disorder might instead reflect severe state-based (or discrete) attentional disturbances.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carmel M Loughland
- Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Hospital, and Department of Psychology, University of Sydney, Australia
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Loughland CM, Williams LM, Gordon E. Visual scanpaths to positive and negative facial emotions in an outpatient schizophrenia sample. Schizophr Res 2002; 55:159-70. [PMID: 11955975 DOI: 10.1016/s0920-9964(01)00186-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 139] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
We used a psychophysiological marker of visual attention (visual scanpath) to investigate facial emotion processing in schizophrenia (n= 65) and healthy control (n = 61) groups. Visual scanpaths to 'happy', *sad' and 'neutral' faces (two exposures each) were recorded using video-oculography. Emotion recognition accuracy was assessed under both 'difficult' (exposure 1) and 'limited choice' (exposure 2) conditions. Compared to controls, schizophrenia subjects showed 'restricted' scanning and reduced attention to salient facial features (eyes, nose, mouth), that was particularly apparent for happy and neutral faces: accuracy was correspondingly reduced for the 'difficult' condition. The schizophrenia deficit in positive emotion perception may reflect a failure to integrate salient features due to dysfunctions in local processing of detailed, relevant information (fewer fixations, less attention to facial features), and in the networks that synchronise local and global processing of biologically-relevant face stimuli (generally restricted scanning style).
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Affiliation(s)
- Carmel M Loughland
- Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, The Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW 2145, Australia
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Abstract
To examine the relationship between emotional activation and information gathering in schizophrenia, the eye movements and emotional responses of 20 patients with schizophrenia and 10 patients without history of psychosis were recorded while viewing 30 images varying in pleasantness. Emotionally activating pictures were more extensively explored than neutral pictures by both groups but especially by schizophrenia patients. Comparison patients explored pictures more extensively during the early part of image exposure, whereas patients with schizophrenia took longer to engage in informative exploration. The scan path lengths and the proportions of fixation time spent in regions of interest did not differ between groups, although persons with schizophrenia had longer fixations and looked at fewer regions of interest in neutral pictures. Emotion reports did not differ between groups. Schizophrenia patients' results are consistent with the hypothesized normalizing effects of emotional activation on the distribution of attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- S W Quirk
- Department of Psychology, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant 48859, USA
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Abstract
This paper attempts to provide an overview of the current status and some possible future directions of 'Integrative Psychophysiology'. Exemplar integrations are offered for: (i) the theory of some of the more cited models of the brain as a system; (ii) a numerical simulation of brain dynamics (highlighting the plausibility of exploring mechanisms at the whole brain scale); and (iii) an empirical profile of disturbances in patients with schizophrenia (reflecting a prototypical disorder of overall brain instability and suboptimal integrative information processing). These 'integrative' dimensions provide a frame of reference for considering interrelationships among brain dynamics and behaviour, in health and disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- E Gordon
- The Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Hospital and Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
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Williams LM, Senior C, David AS, Loughland CM, Gordon E. In Search of the “Duchenne Smile”: Evidence from Eye Movements. J PSYCHOPHYSIOL 2001. [DOI: 10.1027//0269-8803.15.2.122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Abstract Duchenne de Boulogne (1862/1990) observed that authentic smiles are distinguished from posed smiles by contractions of the orbicularis oculi muscle that surrounds the eye. Hager and Ekman (1985) subsequently reported that the “Duchenne smile” is discriminated specifically by contractions at the outer corners of the eyes (“crows feet” wrinkles). Little is known of the visuo-cognitive strategies that underpin perception of the Duchenne smile. We examined ocular dynamics (pattern of eye fixations) as an overt and accessible index of these strategies (Stark & Ellis, 1981). The spatio-temporal fixation indices were number and duration of foveal fixations to the crows feet area relative to the total face area. In line with predictions, subjects (n = 58) made proportionately more fixations of longer duration to the crows feet area for smiling, compared to negative (sad) and baseline (neutral) control expressions. It is suggested that a “hardwired” response may be involved in reference to this particular anatomical marker of the genuine smile. Humans may have evolved to distinguish the Duchenne smile because of its important communicative role.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leanne M. Williams
- Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, The Brain Dynamics Centre and Dept. of Psychology, University of Sydney, Australia
| | - Carl Senior
- Dept. of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry and GKT School of Medicine, London, UK
| | - Anthony S. David
- Dept. of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry and GKT School of Medicine, London, UK
| | - Carmel M. Loughland
- Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, The Brain Dynamics Centre and Dept. of Psychology, University of Sydney, Australia
| | - Evian Gordon
- The Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Hospital and Dept. of Psychological Medicine, University of Sydney, Australia
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Lee KH, Williams LM. Eye movement dysfunction as a biological marker of risk for schizophrenia. Aust N Z J Psychiatry 2000; 34 Suppl:S91-100. [PMID: 11129321 DOI: 10.1080/000486700228] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Our aim was to review smooth pursuit eye movement (SPEM) studies in schizophrenia and groups at high risk for schizophrenia, with a view to evaluating the utility of SPEM dysfunction as a biological marker of risk for schizophrenia. METHOD Smooth pursuit eye movement studies, related saccade function and the unresolved issues in this area of schizophrenia research were addressed. The different perspectives on the trait marker status of SPEM dysfunction, provided by both high-risk studies and related developmental research were considered. Attention was also given to the relationship between eye movement dysfunction and symptom profiles. RESULTS Converging evidence points to the robust and specific nature of SPEM dysfunction in schizophrenia, and highlights the role of frontal lobe and a related network dysfunction. The vast majority of 'high risk' studies support the view that SPEM dysfunction is also genetically specific to schizophrenia, and is not simply due to the overt expression of this illness. Studies assessing SPEM in relation to symptomatology show an association with the Disorganisation syndrome in particular. CONCLUSIONS Evidence for the specificity of SPEM dysfunction to diagnosed schizophrenia, as well as to healthy individuals with a genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia, suggests that the SPEM task has efficacy as a test of gene carrier status in schizophrenia, and therefore as a trait marker of risk for schizophrenia. Future studies should seek to explore the relationships between SPEM and other eye movement dysfunctions (antisaccades, express saccades), in view of evidence that some of these dysfunctions also show specificity for schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- K H Lee
- Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, The Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales.
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Abstract
Schizophrenia has been associated with abnormalities in recognising social emotions, inferring others' mental states and in gaze and visual scanning behaviours. Eye expression is known to convey considerable information in normal circumstances. Our study assessed the ability of individuals with schizophrenia to recognise simple and complex mental states from eye expressions alone. Sixteen individuals with a DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia following SCAN [Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (Wing JK, Babor T, Brugha T, Burke J, Cooper JE, Giel R et al. SCAN: schedules for clinical assessment in neuropsychiatry. Archives of General Psychiatry 1990;47:589-593).] interview and 16 healthy controls acted as participants. Expressions of 10 emotions (e.g. happy, afraid) and 10 complex mental states (e.g. thoughtful, bored), in the form of pictures of whole faces or eyes alone, were presented for recognition using a forced-choice response design. We observed impaired recognition of complex mental states in individuals with schizophrenia, from eye expressions alone (P=0.012). No differences in the recognition of basic emotions were detected. We also observed a negative correlation between illness chronicity and expression recognition performance (r=-0.65, P=0.006). The reduced ability of schizophrenia patients to recognise eye expressions of complex mental states could be interpreted as supporting a lack of "theory of mind". However, more parsimonious explanations based on impairments in basic recognition processes could also apply. An awareness of these processing abnormalities may have implications for future therapeutic strategies and our understanding of the pathophysiology of the disorder.
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Affiliation(s)
- J M Kington
- Division of Psychological Medicine, University of Wales, College of Medicine, Heath Park, CF14 4XN, Cardiff, UK
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Williams LM, Loughland CM, Gordon E, Davidson D. Visual scanpaths in schizophrenia: is there a deficit in face recognition? Schizophr Res 1999; 40:189-99. [PMID: 10638857 DOI: 10.1016/s0920-9964(99)00056-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 114] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
Abstract
There is substantial evidence that schizophrenics have deficits in face processing. We hypothesised that this difficulty is due to abnormalities in the visual scanning of faces. The specificity of these abnormalities to recognisable faces, the effect of task difficulty and their relationships to three primary symptom dimensions were examined. An infrared corneal reflection technique was used to record the visual scanpaths of 63 schizophrenics and 60 non-psychiatric controls while viewing non-degraded ('recognisable') and degraded ('not recognisable') faces. In the concurrent recognition task, subjects were asked to select the previously viewed face from among seven (exposure 1) or three (exposure 2) options. Both groups were unable to accurately recognise degraded faces, but schizophrenics were less accurate than controls for non-degraded faces in the more difficult task condition. Schizophrenics maintained a relatively 'restricted' scanpath style across both faces, but scanpath disturbances were most apparent for non-degraded faces. Analysis of fixation distribution to non-degraded faces showed that, unlike controls, schizophrenics did not concentrate their fixations on salient features. Scanpath aberrations showed only minimal associations with symptom dimensions. These results suggest that schizophrenic individuals have a specific deficit in the visual scanning of faces, that is a distinct case of a fundamental problem in complex object processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- L M Williams
- School of Psychology, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia.
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Manor BR, Gordon E, Williams LM, Rennie CJ, Bahramali H, Latimer CR, Barry RJ, Meares RA. Eye movements reflect impaired face processing in patients with schizophrenia. Biol Psychiatry 1999; 46:963-9. [PMID: 10509179 DOI: 10.1016/s0006-3223(99)00038-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 81] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Impaired processing of faces in patients with schizophrenia may underlie aspects of disturbance in their social interaction. This study examined patterns of eye fixation in subjects with schizophrenia and non-psychiatric controls, while processing a high resolution picture of a neutral face and a nonbiological complex geometric stimulus. METHODS Ten-second sequences of eye movement were recorded video-oculographically (50 samples/sec) while subjects were "free-viewing" the stimuli. An essential element of the study was customized software that ensured stimulus presentation on a video display only after subjects were fixated upon a centre-screen cue, so that all subjects began stimulus processing from the same point. RESULTS Compared with the control group, subjects with schizophrenia exhibited reduced scanpath lengths and a tendency toward fewer fixations for the face stimulus. They also showed an initial relative right spatial hemineglect (for the first voluntary fixation) when viewing the Rey figure, but not when viewing the face stimulus. Overall, there were no significant differences between the schizophrenia and control groups in the lateral distribution of subsequent fixations for either stimulus. CONCLUSIONS Disturbed spatial and temporal patterns of eye movement in some people with schizophrenia may reflect sub-optimal processing of face stimuli, that may predispose these individuals to dysfunctional interpretation of facial communication cues.
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Affiliation(s)
- B R Manor
- Department of Psychiatry, Westmead Hospital, Australia
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Rosse RB, Schwartz BL, Johri S, Deutsch SI. Visual scanning of faces correlates with schizophrenia symptomatology. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry 1998; 22:971-9. [PMID: 9789881 DOI: 10.1016/s0278-5846(98)00056-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
1. The purpose of this study was to examine whether quantitative measures of visual scanning of faces correlated with the severity of symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. 2. Preattentive visual fixations (fixations less than or equal to 50.1 ms in duration) were measured while 16 subjects with chronic schizophrenia and 38 comparison subjects scanned slides of human faces. 3. A significant inverse correlation was found between the number of preattentive fixations exhibited during 10 seconds of facial scanning and total Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) scores. 4. This study suggests that measures that probe preattentive processing during scanning of faces could represent a novel paradigm for studying the symptoms of schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- R B Rosse
- Psychiatry Service, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Washington, D.C., USA
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48
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Abstract
The role of the visual scan path as a psychophysiological marker of visual attention has been highlighted previously (Phillips and David, 1994). We investigated information processing in schizophrenic patients with severe delusions and again when the delusions were subsiding using visual scan path measurements. We aimed to demonstrate a specific deficit in processing human faces in deluded subjects by relating this to abnormal viewing strategies. Scan paths were measured in six deluded and five non-deluded schizophrenics (matched for medication and negative symptoms), and nine age-matched normal controls. Deluded subjects had abnormal scan paths in a recognition task, fixating non-feature areas significantly more than controls, but were equally accurate. Re-testing after improvement in delusional conviction revealed fewer group differences. The results suggest state-dependent abnormal information processing in schizophrenics when deluded, with reliance on less-salient visual information for decision-making.
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Affiliation(s)
- M L Phillips
- Department of Psychological Medicine, King's College Hospital, London, UK
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49
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Abstract
One explanation for delusion formation is that they result from distorted appreciation of complex stimuli. The study investigated delusions in schizophrenia using a physiological marker of visual attention and information processing, the visual scan path-a map tracing the direction and duration of gaze when an individual views a stimulus. The aim was to demonstrate the presence of a specific deficit in processing meaningful stimuli (e.g. human faces) in deluded schizophrenics (DS) by relating this to abnormal viewing strategies. Visual scan paths were measured in acutely-deluded (n = 7) and non-deluded (n = 7) schizophrenics matched for medication, illness duration and negative symptoms, plus 10 age-matched normal controls. DS employed abnormal strategies for viewing single faces and face pairs in a recognition task, staring at fewer points and fixating non-feature areas to a significantly greater extent than both control groups (P < 0.05). The results indicate that DS direct their attention to less salient visual information when viewing faces. Future paradigms employing more complex stimuli and testing DS when less-deluded will allow further clarification of the relationship between viewing strategies and delusions.
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Affiliation(s)
- M L Phillips
- Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, London, U.K
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Bryant RA, Harvey AG, Gordon E, Barry RJ. Eye movement and electrodermal responses to threat stimuli in post-traumatic stress disorder. Int J Psychophysiol 1995; 20:209-13. [PMID: 8788223 DOI: 10.1016/0167-8760(95)00036-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
Abstract
A core feature of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is hypervigilence to threatening material. This study measured processing of threat material in PTSD with simultaneously acquired initial eye movements and electrodermal activity, following presentation of threatening and neutral words. Ten PTSD subjects and 10 controls were presented with 4 words in parafoveal range. On trials in which a threat word was present, PTSD subjects demonstrated initial eye fixations on the threat word more than controls. PTSD subjects also demonstrated more orienting responses on all trials than controls. These results suggest that processing of threat information in PTSD can be usefully investigated with convergent psychophysiological methodologies.
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Affiliation(s)
- R A Bryant
- School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. r.bryant/unsw.edu.au
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