Percepção de expressões faciais em pessoas com esquizofrenia: movimentos oculares, sintomatologia e nível intelectual

Abstract

ResumoA análise dos padrões dos movimentos oculares em esquizofrênicos mostra que estes apresentam alterações próprias da doença. O objetivo foi avaliar e relacionar as propriedades dos movimentos oculares com o estado clínico e nível intelectual durante observação de faces. Foram avaliados 10 sujeitos com diagnóstico de esquizofrenia e 10 controle, pareados em função de sexo, idade e escolaridade. Foi utilizada a Escala das Síndromes Positiva e Negativa (ESPN), o Teste de Matrizes Progressivas Raven e o Penn Emotion Acuity Test. A busca visual foi registrada com programa EyeGaze®. Resultados mostram que ambos os grupos fixaram mais as faces com conteúdo emocional, sendo o número total de fixações menor entre os pacientes com esquizofrenia. A duração da fixação teve correlação inversa com a pontuação no Raven, PANSS e número de fixação. Parâmetros dos movimentos oculares se correlacionaram com a condição clínica e nível intelectual dos pacientes com esquizofrenia. Palavras-chave: Esquizofrenia; Movimento ocular; Inteligência; Estado clínico. The perception of facial expressions in people with schizophrenia: Eye movements, symptomatology and intelligence AbstractAnalyses of the eye movement patterns of schizophrenics show some specific characteristics underlying the illness. The objective of present study was to evaluate and correlate basic properties of the eye movements with the clinical state and intelligence during the visual scan of faces. 10 outpatient subjects with schizophrenia and 10 controls matched in gender, age and school years were evaluated. The assessment tools were the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PNSS), the Raven's Progressive Matrices Test and the Penn Emotion Acuity Test. The visual scan was registered with the EyeGaze® program. Both groups showed more fixations for stimuli with emotional expression, with significantly smaller overall number of fixations for the schizophrenic subjects group. Duration of fixations was inversely correlated with score in the Raven Test, PANSS and number of fixations. The properties of the eye movements showed correlation with the clinical condition and intelligence of the outpatients with schizophrenia.

Analysis of exploratory eye movements in patients with schizophrenia during visual scanning of projective tests' figures

“…There was no significant difference (F [1,18] = 0.230, p < 0.64) between the groups in the Raven test scores, although controls (M = 29.40, SD = 10.07) scored in average 3 points more than patients with schizophrenia (M = 26.50, SD = 16.23). The results on the PANSS scale indicated that 6 subjects scored for none, 2 for negative, 1 for positive and 1 for mixed symptomatological type.…”

“…There was no significant difference between the two types of TAT cards. In the group analyses, there was not a significant main effect (F [1,18] = 3.064, p < 0.1).…”

“…Between-groups MANOVAs were accomplished, but there was no significant difference in the proportion of fixation for AOIs of any card (F [1,18] = 2.63, p < 0.2). Within-subjects analysis showed a main effect for AOIs (F [2,36] = 73.46, p < 0.001), with both groups showing more fixations in the central AOIs, than in the peripheral ones (Table 2).…”

“…No significant difference was found in NF between both types of TAT cards (p < 0.09). In the group analyses, there was a significant main effect (F [1,18] = 6.294, p = 0.02). Indeed, an analysis with MANOVAs showed that participants with schizophrenia made significantly less fixations than controls for TAT-faces and ROR (both p < 0.05), but not for TAT-scenes (p < 0.1).…”

“…Other studies of exploratory eye movements use more concrete images, such as human faces with emotional and neutral expressions 18 . Results have shown that both patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls display more fixations in the faces with positive or negative emotional content than in neutral faces.…”