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Deficits of subliminal self-face processing in schizophrenia
Song Zhou1, Yuanyuan Xu2, Nanbo Wang1
1School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Consciousness and Cognition
|February 24, 2020
Summary
Schizophrenia patients show impaired self-face processing even at a subliminal level. Unlike healthy individuals, they did not exhibit a processing advantage for their own face in this study.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Clinical Psychology
Background:
- Self-processing is often impaired in schizophrenia at conscious levels.
- Subliminal processing abilities in schizophrenia remain less understood.
- Deficits in self-face recognition are a key area of investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate subliminal self-face processing in individuals with schizophrenia.
- To compare subliminal processing of self-faces versus familiar and unknown faces.
- To determine if schizophrenia impacts unconscious self-recognition.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a breaking continuous flash suppression (bCFS) paradigm.
- Interocular suppression of self, famous, and unknown face images.
- Measured reaction times to detect faces breaking suppression as an index of processing.
Main Results:
- Schizophrenia patients did not show a subliminal processing advantage for their own face.
- A significant face familiarity effect was observed in patients.
- Results differed from healthy controls who typically show self-face advantage.
Conclusions:
- Subliminal self-face processing may be impaired in schizophrenia.
- Findings suggest deficits extend beyond conscious self-recognition.
- Contributes to understanding self-processing abnormalities in schizophrenia.
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