The effect of ketamine on configural facial processing

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Ketamine induces transient psychosis by affecting N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors.
• Ketamine mimics positive, cognitive, and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, unlike dopamine agonists.
• Facial processing deficits, particularly reduced facial inversion effect, are observed in schizophrenia.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if ketamine reduces the facial inversion effect in healthy participants.
• To further validate ketamine as a model for schizophrenia-related cognitive impairments.

Main Methods:

• Double-blind, placebo-controlled, repeated-measures design.
• 14 participants received ketamine and saline on separate occasions.
• Assessed facial inversion effect and visual processing deficits.

Main Results:

• Participants showed an intact facial inversion effect with placebo but not with ketamine.
• Self-reported visual processing deficits correlated with inversion scores and task errors.
• Results support ketamine's ability to reduce the facial inversion effect.

Conclusions:

• Ketamine administration reduces the facial inversion effect, supporting its utility in modeling schizophrenia.
• Findings suggest the involvement of the glutamate system in configural face information processing.
• Further research with larger samples and diverse facial tasks is recommended.