Research from Harvard University Provides New Data about Schizophrenia.

According to recent research from Cambridge, United States, "Deficits in face emotion recognition (FIR) in schizophrenia are well documented, and have been proposed as a potential intermediate phenotype for schizophrenia liability. However, research on the relationship between psychosis vulnerability and FER has mixed findings and methodological limitations."

"Moreover, no study has yet characterized the relationship between PER ability and level of psychosis-proneness. If FER ability varies continuously with psychosis-proneness, this suggests a relationship between FER and polygenic risk factors. We tested two large internet samples to see whether psychometric psychosis-proneness, as measured by tie Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief (SPQ-B), is related to differences in face emotion identification and discrimination or other face processing abilities. Experiment 1 (n = 2332) showed that psychosis-proneness predicts face emotion identification ability but not face gender identification ability. Experiment 2 (n = 1514) demonstrated that psychosis-proneness also predicts performance on face emotion but not face identity discrimination. The tasks in Experiment 2 used identical stimuli and task parameters, differing only in emotion/identity judgment. Notably, the relationships demonstrated in Experiments 1 and 2 persisted even when individuals with the highest psychosis-proneness levels (the putative high-risk group) were excluded from analysis. Our data suggest that FER ability is related to individual differences in psychosis-like characteristics in the normal population, and that these differences cannot be accounted for by differences in face processing and/or visual perception," wrote L.T. Germine and colleagues, Harvard University (see also Schizophrenia).

The researchers concluded: "Our results suggest that PER may provide a useful candidate intermediate phenotype."

Germine and colleagues published their study in Psychological Medicine (Face emotion recognition is related to individual differences in psychosis-proneness. Psychological Medicine, 2011;41(5):937-947).

For additional information, contact L.T. Germine, Harvard University, Dept. of Psychology, 33 Kirkland St., Cambridge, MA 02138, United States.

Publisher contact information for the journal Psychological Medicine is: Cambridge University Press, 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA.

Keywords: City:Cambridge, State:Massachusetts, Country:United States, Region:North and Central America, Neurology, Psychiatry, Psychological, Psychosis, Schizophrenia

This article was prepared by Mental Health Weekly Digest editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2011, Mental Health Weekly Digest via NewsRx.com.