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Conscious and Non-conscious Representations of Emotional Faces in Asperger's Syndrome
Published on: July 31, 2016
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Facial emotion memory in schizophrenia: From encoding to maintenance-related EEG
Colleen A Brenner1, Samuel P Rumak2, Amy M N Burns2
1Loma Linda University, Department of Psychology, 11130 Anderson Street Suite 106, Loma Linda, CA 92350, USA.
Summary
Schizophrenia patients show altered brain activity during facial emotion memory tasks. This suggests impaired integration of sensory processing and memory maintenance may impact social functioning in schizophrenia.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Psychiatry
Background:
- Individuals with schizophrenia experience difficulties in recognizing facial emotions, impacting social interactions.
- The underlying causes of these deficits—aberrant sensory processing, memory maintenance issues, or their integration—are not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neural mechanisms of facial emotion processing and memory in schizophrenia.
- To examine event-related potentials (ERPs) and theta power during a facial emotion memory task.
Main Methods:
- Administered a facial emotion memory paradigm to 38 schizophrenia patients (SZ) and 42 healthy controls (HC).
- Measured P100, N170, and N250 ERP amplitudes for sensory processing.
- Quantified evoked theta power during the delay interval for memory maintenance.
Main Results:
- Both groups showed larger N170 ERP to negative vs. neutral faces.
- Schizophrenia patients exhibited increased evoked theta power during the delay interval.
- Theta power correlated with performance on sad/fearful expressions in HC, but only fearful in SZ; consistent N170-theta correlations found only in HC.
Conclusions:
- Schizophrenia may involve impaired integration between sensory processing and memory functioning.
- Findings suggest intertwined oscillatory networks for emotion processing and attention, part of the affected social brain network in schizophrenia.
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