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Updated: Jul 23, 2026
Conscious and Non-conscious Representations of Emotional Faces in Asperger's Syndrome
Published on: July 31, 2016
A comprehensive assessment of facial expression recognition and empathy in schizophrenia
Laura Alonso-Recio1, Liz Mendoza1, África Pérez1
1Departamento de Psicología Biológica y de la Salud, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Introduction:
Individuals with schizophrenia often show impairments in emotional facial expression recognition and empathy, although the precise nature of these social cognitive deficits remains unresolved. This study aims to overcome previous assessment limitations by comparing static and dynamic emotion facial expression recognition, as well as self-reported and situational empathy tasks, in schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. Correlations between these abilities and symptomatology were also explored.
Methods:
This cross-sectional observational study involved 20 participants with schizophrenia and 20 controls. They completed tasks assessing facial expression recognition using static (photographs) and dynamic (videos) stimuli and empathy through a self-report (Interpersonal Reactivity Index) and situational tasks. Symptomatology was also examined for their influence on social cognitive abilities.
Results:
Schizophrenia patients exhibit deficits in static facial expressions recognition and in self-reported empathic abilities. Nevertheless, performance in dynamic facial expressions recognition and situational empathy tasks was similar in both groups. No correlations were found between these abilities and symptomatology.
Conclusions:
Our data suggest that the way in which emotional facial expression recognition and empathy skills are measured provide different measures of the ability of individuals with schizophrenia. This should be taken into consideration in order not to underestimate the performance of such patients.
