Brain activation during eye gaze discrimination in stable schizophrenia

Abstract

Objective-Earlier studies described gaze discrimination impairment in schizophrenia. The purpose of this study was to compare gaze discrimination abilities and associated brain activation in persons with stable schizophrenia and matched controls.Methods-13 schizophrenia and 12 healthy participants underwent a gaze discrimination task with face stimuli rotated at 0, 4 and 8° deviation. During fMRI with BOLD imaging, subjects were asked to identify whether a face was making eye contact. Subject-level parameter estimates for BOLD signal change were entered into an orientation by group mixed effect repeated measures ANOVA.Results-Gaze discrimination performance did not differ between groups. Patients showed decreased activation in areas of bilateral inferior frontal and occipital areas, and select temporo-limbic regions, including amygdala. Groups differed by activation patterns according to gaze deviation. In controls, faces with 4° deviation produced higher activation in frontal and temporal regions. In patients, 0° deviation produced increased activation in amygdala and areas of temporal neocortex.Conclusions-Despite similar gaze discrimination abilities, schizophrenia patients exhibit decreased brain activation in areas associated with executive, emotional and visual processing. Controls exhibited increased activation associated with the more difficult task in select frontal and temporal regions. Patients exhibited increased activation associated with direct gaze in temporal regions, which may relate to common symptoms.

Abnormal Modulation of Amygdala Activity in Schizophrenia in Response to Direct- and Averted-Gaze Threat-Related Facial Expressions

“…Second, based on the results of Kohler et al (19), we tentatively hypothesized that patients would show greater amygdala activation to both anger and fear in direct-gaze expressions and therefore show less amygdala modulation as compared to healthy volunteers. Healthy volunteers and schizophrenia patients completed an emotion recognition task of fear and anger expressions with direct and averted gazes while undergoing functional neuroimaging.…”

“…Kohler and colleagues (19) manipulated gaze direction of faces expressing neutral emotional states and asked healthy volunteers and patients with schizophrenia to determine whether the face was looking at them or looking away. Kohler and colleagues (19) manipulated gaze direction of faces expressing neutral emotional states and asked healthy volunteers and patients with schizophrenia to determine whether the face was looking at them or looking away.…”

Deconstructing eye contact perception: Measuring perceptual precision and self-referential tendency using an online psychophysical eye contact detection task

“…Another issue with previous eye contact perception studies deals with sample size. Most previous studies have used small samples, with the majority consisting of fewer than 20 participants (e.g., [9,18,30,[36][37][38][39]) and a significant portion using samples of 10 or less (e.g., [17,26,31,33,35,40]). Besides limiting the generalizability of the findings, small sample sizes also preclude the investigation of important questions about eye contact perception, such as within-subject reliability over time, relationships to other social cognitive functions, sex differences, and age effect.…”

Do apparent overlaps between schizophrenia and autistic spectrum disorders reflect superficial similarities or etiological commonalities?

“…In one study, they did not differ from controls in gaze discrimination performance, but as subjects decided when faces (i.e., facial stimuli) were making eye contact, different brain regions were activated between groups when the stimuli were rotated from a head-on view. 59 Interestingly, results of studies that examined gaze discrimination in schizophrenia are mixed. 60–62 Miscuing in schizophrenia is also more likely to occur when a facial emotion/intention is perceived in error.…”

“…59,67,86–91 A meta-analysis of structural MRI studies in autism showed, for example, increased volumes in total brain, both hemispheres, the cerebellum and the caudate. 87 Toal et al also found increased volume in the right caudate, and in more restricted clusters in the brainstem, right middle frontal gyrus, precentral and postcentral gyri (that extended bilaterally to the cingulate gyrus, among other areas).…”