Aberrant visual attention is associated with social judgements of attractiveness and negative symptoms in...

Accurate perception of facial attractiveness supports normative social motivation and approach behaviors, in part via its association with endogenous oxytocin levels. Individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) display impaired social functioning that is associated with endogenous oxytocin levels. However, it is unclear whether judgements of facial attractiveness and the attentional processes that support them contribute to social abnormalities in SZ. The current study examined whether judgements of facial attractiveness and gaze behavior were associated with negative symptoms, social functioning, and oxytocin.

Forty-one individuals with SZ and 23 healthy controls (CN) rated male and female facial stimuli for levels of attractiveness while gaze behavior was recorded via eye-tracking. Fixation count and gaze duration in facial regions of interest were used to evaluate facial scanning behavior. Plasma oxytocin concentrations were derived via radioimmunoassay.

CN and SZ did not significantly differ on perceptions of facial attractiveness; however, SZ displayed an aberrant visual scan pattern characterized by reduced attention to salient facial features on both male and female faces. Further, this aberrant scanning pattern was associated with greater negative symptoms and reduced social functioning in SZ. Oxytocin was not associated with attractiveness perceptions or gaze behavior.

Findings suggest that negative symptoms and social functioning are associated with diminished judgements of facial attractiveness and corresponding patterns of aberrant gaze behavior. Attention training programs focused on increasing gaze to salient facial features may support better social functioning and lower negative symptoms in SZ.