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Effortful versus automatic emotional processing in schizophrenia: Insights from a face-vignette task
Regan E Patrick1, Anuj Rastogi, Bruce K Christensen
1a Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Neuroscience , McMaster University , Hamilton , Canada.
Cognition & Emotion
|July 19, 2014
Summary
Schizophrenia (SCZ) patients show altered emotional processing, favoring automatic over effortful responses. This study found SCZ patients relied more on automatic cues and less on effortful ones, influenced by cognitive abilities.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Psychiatry
Background:
- Adaptive emotional responding involves automatic and effortful processing streams.
- Dual-stream models of schizophrenia (SCZ) suggest deficits in effortful processing circuits.
- This imbalance may lead to diminished effortful and intact automatic emotional responses in SCZ.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the dual-stream model's prediction of altered emotional responding in SCZ.
- To investigate conflict resolution between automatic and effortful emotional cues in SCZ patients.
- To examine the influence of cognitive abilities on emotional responding in SCZ.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a modified face-vignette task (FVT) to assess emotional responding.
- Participants viewed emotional faces (automatic cue) paired with vignettes (effortful cue).
- Instructions required discriminating the manifest emotion, assessing response bias.
Main Results:
- Schizophrenia patients made fewer vignette (effortful) responses and more face (automatic) responses than controls.
- Cognitive abilities, including IQ and reading comprehension, moderated the group differences in FVT responding.
- These findings suggest altered conflict resolution between automatic and effortful emotional processing in SCZ.
Conclusions:
- Results provide tentative support for dual-stream models of schizophrenia.
- Abnormal conflict resolution between automatic and effortful emotional processing is implicated in SCZ.
- Cognitive factors play a significant role in modulating these emotional processing deficits.
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