Comparative studies on recognition of faces, mimic and gestures in adolescent and middle-aged schizophrenic patients

In adolescent and middle-aged schizophrenic patients and normals 10 different multiple-choice tests of 12 scored movie scenes lasting 10s were applied, measuring the ability to recognize faces, persons and mimic expressions. In all tests errors were significantly higher by a factor of 7 to 14 in patients as compared to normals. The relative impairment of adolescent schizophrenic patients (as compared to adolescent normals) was somewhat stronger than that of adult schizophrenics. This supports the hypothesis that the impairment found in schizophrenic patients is caused by the disease and not by other factors such as duration of illness or hospitalization.