BackgroundIndividuals with schizophrenia and people with depression both showabnormal behavioural and neural responses when perceiving and respondingto emotional stimuli, but pathology-specific ...differences andcommonalities remain mostly unclear.AimsTo directly compare empathic responses to dynamic multimodal emotionalstimuli in a group with schizophrenia and a group with depression, and toinvestigate their neural correlates using functional magnetic resonanceimaging (fMRI).MethodThe schizophrenia group (n = 20), the depression group(n = 24) and a control group (n =24) were presented with portrait-shot video clips expressing emotionthrough three possible communication channels: facial expression, prosodyand content. Participants rated their own and the actor's emotional stateas an index of empathy.ResultsAlthough no group differences were found in empathy ratings,characteristic differences emerged in the fMRI activation patterns. Theschizophrenia group demonstrated aberrant activation patterns during theneutral speech content condition in regions implicated in multimodalintegration and formation of semantic constructs. Those in the depressiongroup were most affected during conditions with trimodal emotional andtrimodal neutral stimuli, in key regions of the mentalising network.ConclusionsOur findings reveal characteristic differences in patients withschizophrenia compared with those with depression in their corticalresponses to dynamic affective stimuli. These differences indicate thatimpairments in responding to emotional stimuli may be caused bypathology-specific problems in social cognition.
Abstract Background Biased causal attribution is a critical factor in the cognitive model of depression. Whereas depressed patients interpret events negatively, healthy people show a self-serving ...bias (internal attribution of positive events and external attribution of negative events). Methods Using fMRI, depressed patients (n = 15) and healthy controls (n = 15) were confronted with positive and negative social events and made causal attributions (internal vs. external). Functional data were analyzed using a mixed effects model. Results Behaviourally, controls showed a self-serving bias, whereas patients demonstrated a balanced attributional pattern. Analysis of functional data revealed a significant group difference in a fronto-temporal network. Higher activation of this network was associated with non self-serving attributions in controls but self-serving attributions in patients. Applying a psycho-physiological interaction analysis, we observed reduced coupling between a dorsomedial PFC seed region and limbic areas during self-serving attributions in patients compared to controls. Limitations Results of the PPI analysis are preliminary given the liberal statistical threshold. Conclusions The association of the behaviourally less frequent attributional pattern with activation in a fronto-temporal network suggests that non self-serving responses may produce a self-related response conflict in controls, while self-serving responses produce this conflict in patients. Moreover, attribution-modulated coupling between the dorsomedial PFC and limbic regions was weaker in patients than controls. This preliminary finding suggests that depression may be associated with disturbances in fronto-limbic coupling during attributional decisions. Our results implicate that treatment of major depression may benefit from approaches that facilitate reinterpretation of emotional events in a more positive, more self-serving way.
Abstract Several studies suggest facial affect perception (FAP) deficits in schizophrenia are linked to poorer social functioning. However, whether reduced functioning is associated with inaccurate ...perception of specific emotional valence or a global FAP impairment remains unclear. The present study examined whether impairment in the perception of specific emotional valences (positive, negative) and neutrality were uniquely associated with social functioning, using a multimodal social functioning battery. A sample of 59 individuals with schizophrenia and 41 controls completed a computerized FAP task, and measures of functional capacity, social competence, and social attainment. Participants also underwent neuropsychological testing and symptom assessment. Regression analyses revealed that only accurately perceiving negative emotions explained significant variance (7.9%) in functional capacity after accounting for neurocognitive function and symptoms. Partial correlations indicated that accurately perceiving anger, in particular, was positively correlated with functional capacity. FAP for positive, negative, or neutral emotions were not related to social competence or social attainment. Our findings were consistent with prior literature suggesting negative emotions are related to functional capacity in schizophrenia. Furthermore, the observed relationship between perceiving anger and performance of everyday living skills is novel and warrants further exploration.
While the application of fetal MRI in high-risk pregnant women is steadily rising, little is known about the psychological consequences of this procedure. The aim of the present study was to ...investigate emotional and psychophysiological reactions of females undergoing fetal MRI.
Sixty women (17-44 ys), assigned for fetal MRI, were included. Affective state was assessed by standardized measures of anxiety, emotional states and depressive symptoms. Stress coping strategies were assessed using a self-report questionnaire. Stress responses were determined using skin conductance levels (SCL) during fetal MRI as well as measurement of salivary cortisol levels immediately before and after fetal MRI.
Analysis of fast and slow physiological stress measures revealed significant differences between women with and without a supporting person accompanying them to the examination. For SCLs, lower levels of stress during MRI emerged in accompanied women. Women with well-marked stress-coping-strategies experienced lower levels of stress during the examination. Although fast and slow stress measures before and after MRI did not show significant correlations, a significant difference of SCLs pre and post examination was clearly detectable, as well as a trend of decreased cortisol levels for both time points.
The results imply that the elevation of SCLs is an accurate instrument to assess fast stress alterations in patients during fetal MRI. Stress coping strategies and whether women are accompanied or not play an important role in the experience of anxiety and depressive symptoms. These factors should be considered especially in patients with high-risk-pregnancies to improve patient care.
Cultural differences in emotion recognition performance have frequently been reported, whereby duration of stay in a foreign culture seems to be a crucial factor. Furthermore, cultural aspects ...influence the neural correlates of face and emotion processing thereby also affecting the response of the amygdala. Here, the exposure to a foreign culture and its influence on the cerebral correlates of facial emotion recognition were examined in 24 Asian and 24 age-matched European males. Subjects performed an explicit emotion recognition task and were imaged with a 3 T MR-scanner. Results demonstrate a significant cultural influence on the specific recognition of disgust and anger, with higher accuracy among the Europeans, while the functional data indicate generally elevated amygdala activation in Asians compared to Europeans. Moreover, a significant inverse correlation between duration of stay and amygdala response emerged, with stronger activation in those subjects with shorter duration of stay in Europe. The observed amygdala hyperactivation in Asians may reflect novelty aspects but might also be associated with greater effort and motivation in immigrants, thus it possibly reflects one neural correlate of the "alien-effect". We conclude that exposure to a foreign culture and duration of stay affect the behavioral and neural response to facial expressions of emotions.
•Emotion-cognition interaction was investigated using an emotional antisaccade task.•Schizophrenia patients had higher antisaccade error rates than relatives/controls.•All participants made more ...errors to fearful compared to neutral/disgusted faces.•Implicit emotional face processing is intact in patients and first-degree relatives.
Schizophrenia patients have deficits in cognitive control as well as in a number of emotional domains. The antisaccade task is a measure of cognitive control that requires the inhibition of a reflex-like eye movement to a peripheral stimulus. Antisaccade performance has been shown to be modulated by the emotional content of the peripheral stimuli, with emotional stimuli leading to higher error rates than neutral stimuli, reflecting an implicit emotion processing effect. The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact on antisaccade performance of threat-related emotional facial stimuli in schizophrenia patients, first-degree relatives of schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. Fifteen patients, 22 relatives and 26 controls, matched for gender, age and verbal intelligence, carried out an antisaccade task with pictures of faces displaying disgusted, fearful and neutral expressions as peripheral stimuli. We observed higher antisaccade error rates in schizophrenia patients compared to first-degree relatives and controls. Relatives and controls did not differ significantly from each other. Antisaccade error rate was influenced by the emotional nature of the stimuli: participants had higher antisaccade error rates in response to fearful faces compared to neutral and disgusted faces. As this emotional influence on cognitive control did not differ between groups we conclude that implicit processing of emotional faces is intact in patients with schizophrenia and those at risk for the illness.
Fluctuating ovarian hormones have been shown to affect decision-making processes in
women. While emerging evidence suggests effects of endogenous ovarian hormones
such as estradiol and progesterone ...on value-based decision-making in women, the
impact of exogenous synthetic hormones, as in most oral contraceptives, is not clear. In a
between-subjects design, we assessed measures of value-based decision-making in
three groups of women aged 18 to 29 years, during (1) active oral contraceptive intake
(N = 22), (2) the early follicular phase of the natural menstrual cycle (N = 20), and (3) the
periovulatory phase of the natural menstrual cycle (N = 20). Estradiol, progesterone,
testosterone, and sex-hormone binding globulin levels were assessed in all groups via
blood samples. We used a test battery which measured different facets of value-based
decision-making: delay discounting, risk-aversion, risk-seeking, and loss aversion. While
hormonal levels did show the expected patterns for the three groups, there were no
differences in value-based decision-making parameters. Consequently, Bayes factors
showed conclusive evidence in support of the null hypothesis. We conclude that women
on oral contraceptives show no differences in value-based decision-making compared to
the early follicular and periovulatory natural menstrual cycle phases.
Emotional faces communicate both the emotional state and behavioral intentions of an individual. They also activate behavioral tendencies in the perceiver, namely approach or avoidance. Here, we ...compared more automatic motor to more conscious rating responses to happy, sad, angry and disgusted faces in a healthy student sample. Happiness was associated with approach and anger with avoidance. However, behavioral tendencies in response to sadness and disgust were more complex. Sadness produced automatic approach but conscious withdrawal, probably influenced by interpersonal relations or personality. Disgust elicited withdrawal in the rating task whereas no significant tendency emerged in the joystick task, probably driven by expression style. Based on our results it is highly relevant to further explore actual reactions to emotional expressions and to differentiate between automatic and controlled processes since emotional faces are used in various kinds of studies. Moreover, our results highlight the importance of gender of poser effects when applying emotional expressions as stimuli.
Antisocial behavior and aggression are prominent symptoms in several psychiatric disorders including antisocial personality disorder. An established precursor to aggression is a frustrating event, ...which can elicit anger or exasperation, thereby prompting aggressive responses. While some studies have investigated the neural correlates of frustration and aggression, examination of their relation to trait aggression in healthy populations are rare. Based on a screening of 550 males, we formed two extreme groups, one including individuals reporting high (n=21) and one reporting low (n=18) trait aggression. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 3T, all participants were put through a frustration task comprising unsolvable anagrams of German nouns. Despite similar behavioral performance, males with high trait aggression reported higher ratings of negative affect and anger after the frustration task. Moreover, they showed relatively decreased activation in the frontal brain regions and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) as well as relatively less amygdala activation in response to frustration. Our findings indicate distinct frontal and limbic processing mechanisms following frustration modulated by trait aggression. In response to a frustrating event, HA individuals show some of the personality characteristics and neural processing patterns observed in abnormally aggressive populations. Highlighting the impact of aggressive traits on the behavioral and neural responses to frustration in non-psychiatric extreme groups can facilitate further characterization of neural dysfunctions underlying psychiatric disorders that involve abnormal frustration processing and aggression.
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Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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