Facial emotion recognition in adolescents with psychotic-like experiences: a school-based sample from the general population

Abstract

BackgroundPsychotic symptoms, also termed psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) in the absence of psychotic disorder, are common in adolescents and are associated with increased risk of schizophrenia-spectrum illness in adulthood. At the same time, schizophrenia is associated with deficits in social cognition, with deficits particularly documented in facial emotion recognition (FER). However, little is known about the relationship between PLEs and FER abilities, with only one previous prospective study examining the association between these abilities in childhood and reported PLEs in adolescence. The current study was a cross-sectional investigation of the association between PLEs and FER in a sample of Irish adolescents.MethodThe Adolescent Psychotic-Like Symptom Screener (APSS), a self-report measure of PLEs, and the Penn Emotion Recognition-40 Test (Penn ER-40), a measure of facial emotion recognition, were completed by 793 children aged 10–13 years.ResultsChildren who reported PLEs performed significantly more poorly on FER (β=−0.03, p=0.035). Recognition of sad faces was the major driver of effects, with children performing particularly poorly when identifying this expression (β=−0.08, p=0.032).ConclusionsThe current findings show that PLEs are associated with poorer FER. Further work is needed to elucidate causal relationships with implications for the design of future interventions for those at risk of developing psychosis.

Altered white matter microstructure is associated with social cognition and psychotic symptoms in 22q11.2 microdeletion syndrome

“…Participants were asked to identify the emotion of each face (happy, sad, anger, fear, or no emotion) and were given as long as needed to respond (total maximum score = 40, each emotion presented eight times). This measure has shown adequate construct validity and test–retest reliability (Carter et al, 2009), and has been previously used with adolescents (Schenkel et al, 2007; Roddy et al, 2012) and 22q11DS participants (Goldenberg et al, 2012; Gur et al, 2014). …”

Social cognition in 22q11.2 microdeletion syndrome: Relevance to psychosis?

“…Participants also received the Penn Emotion Differentiation Task (EMODIFF), a computerized emotion differentiation task in which individuals are presented with two black and white faces of the same person and are asked to choose which of the two faces displayed expresses an emotion more intensely (e.g., more happy, more sad), or decide that the two faces are equally happy or sad (total maximum score=40) (Erwin et al, 1992). Both measures have shown adequate construct validity and test-retest reliability (Carter et al, 2009; Rojahn et al, 2000), have been widely used in studies with schizophrenia patients (e.g., Butler et al, 2009; Sachs et al, 2004; Silver et al, 2002), as well as in adolescents (Roddy et al, 2012; Schenkel et al, 2007). …”

Greater positive schizotypy relates to reduced N100 activity during rejection scenes

“…Social cognition in the form of facial affect recognition is severely impaired in schizophrenia patients (Kohler, Walker, Martin, Healey, & Moberg, 2010) and consistently impaired in schizotypal individuals (Brown & Cohen, 2010;Miller & Lenzenweger, 2012; S. C. Morrison, Brown, & Cohen, 2013). Poor facial affect recognition also relates to PLEs (Germine & Hooker, 2011;Roddy et al, 2012) and the social anxiety aspect of schizotypy in the non-clinical population (Abbott & Green, 2013). Equally, impaired understanding of relationships in vignettes is associated with more positive symptoms and poorer family and peer relationships in schizophrenia patients (Sergi et al, 2009).…”