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Basic auditory processing deficits and their association with auditory emotion recognition in schizophrenia
Michael S Kraus1, Trina M Walker1, L Fredrik Jarskog2
1Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, 10 Duke Medicine Circle, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
Schizophrenia Research
|October 1, 2018
Summary
Schizophrenia patients show broad auditory deficits impacting emotion recognition. Deficient formant discrimination is a key factor, even after accounting for cognitive impairment.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Auditory Perception
Background:
- Individuals with schizophrenia exhibit impaired vocal emotion recognition, linked to poor global outcomes.
- Auditory processing deficits, including pitch perception, contribute to these emotion recognition difficulties.
- Previous research has narrowly assessed auditory deficits and their relation to emotion recognition in schizophrenia.
Purpose of the Study:
- To comprehensively assess auditory function domains in schizophrenia patients.
- To investigate the relationship between basic auditory processing and auditory emotion recognition.
- To identify specific auditory skills contributing to emotion recognition deficits in schizophrenia.
Main Methods:
- Assessed 87 schizophrenia patients and 73 healthy controls using a comprehensive auditory function test battery.
- Examined five empirically derived domains of auditory function.
- Employed correlational analysis to explore the link between auditory processing and emotion recognition in patients.
Main Results:
- Schizophrenia patients displayed widespread auditory impairments across multiple domains.
- All basic auditory tests correlated with auditory emotion recognition (p < .01) in patients.
- Spectral processing and discrimination of vocal stimuli showed significant correlations with emotion recognition, even after controlling for cognition.
Conclusions:
- Widespread auditory deficits contribute to impaired emotion recognition in schizophrenia.
- Deficient formant discrimination is a critical auditory skill linked to impaired emotion recognition.
- Formant discrimination uniquely predicts emotion recognition performance, independent of cognitive impairment and pitch processing deficits.
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