62.1 Visualizing Mental Representations of Emotional Faces in Schizophrenia

Abstract

Concurrent Symposia Presentations S37target mechanism through which individuals with schizophrenia show inaccurate IA. Methods: Neural activation was measured using fMRI in 20 healthy controls and 20 individuals with schizophrenia as they completed IA and control versions of both a neurocognitive (i.e., Wisconsin Card Sorting Task) and a social cognitive task (i.e., emotion recognition). For each trial, participants made a required response to demonstrate their level of cognitive or social cognitive performance. A follow-up screen was then presented which differed in the two versions of the task. In the IA version, individuals rated their confidence in the correctness of the previous response on a scale from 1 to 5. In the control version, individuals selected a highlighted number on a scale from 1 to 5. Results: Preliminary analyses revealed greater activation in rlPFC, dACC, and insula during IA relative to control tasks. Inferior frontal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, and cuneus also showed greater activation during IA. Of note, rlPFC, dACC, insula, and IFG activations were evident only in healthy controls, whereas MTG and cuneus were present for both healthy controls and patients. Comparison of IA-related neural activity between groups revealed greater activation for controls relative to patients in rlPFC, dACC, and insula during the neurocognitive task. Controls also showed greater activation in bilateral inferior frontal gyrus, inferior parietal cortex, and cuneus. During social cognitive IA, healthy controls showed increased activation in medial prefrontal cortex and insula relative to patients. Conclusion:These results highlight a potential neural mechanism for impaired introspective accuracy in schizophrenia and suggest that domains of IA (e.g., social cognitive vs. neurocognitive) may be subserved by different networks. NEW PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL COGNITIVE PROCESSES AND SOCIAL FUNCTIONING IN SCHIZOPHRENIA Junghee Lee University of California, Los AngelesOverall Abstract: Social cognitive processes are crucial for individuals to effectively navigate the complex environment of social relationships. Although social cognitive impairment has been identified as a key determinant of poor community functioning in schizophrenia in the past decade, much less known about the underlying factors of social cognitive impairment and its exact pathway to social dysfunction. This session aims to address this critical knowledge gap. Neeltje van Haren (University Medical Center Utrecht) will give a presentation titled "Visualizing Mental Representation of Emotional Faces in Schizophrenia." Using psychophysical reverse correlation, her data show that internal representations of facial expression (i.e., trustworthy, untrustworthy) of patients are less expressive than those of controls, suggesting a potential mechanism of impaired social perception in schizophrenia. Laura Hieber (Vanderbilt University) will give a presentation titled "Consequences of Social Isolation and Loneliness on Social Perception." Her findings show tha...