Electromagnetic brain activity evoked by affective stimuli in schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is typically associated with cognitive deficits, but symptoms also point to alterations in the processing of affective material, with potential impact on behavioral performance. This impact may unfold on multiple time scales, but initial processing of rapidly unfolding social cues may be particularly important. MEG-assessed regional brain activity associated with the capacity to process the emotional content of rapid visual stimuli (3/s) was examined in 12 individuals with schizophrenia and 12 matched controls. Patients showed less differentiation of emotional versus neutral stimuli 90-300 ms following picture onset. Together with group differences in the lateral topography of valence effects, these results are discussed as evidence of deficient automatic processing of emotionally potent stimuli in schizophrenia.