BACKGROUND: Epidemiological studies of schizophrenia suggest that this disorder has a substantial genetic component. Cognitive and social abilities, as well as the volumes of brain regions involved in emotion processing, have been found to be distributed along a continuum when comparing patients, siblings and controls, with siblings showing intermediate scores. AIMS: To establish whether facial expression recognition is impaired in unaffected siblings of patients. METHOD: Emotion and gender recognition were evaluated in a three-group pre-post study design in drug-naive patients with first-episode schizophrenia (n=40) and their unaffected siblings (n=30) compared with controls (n=26). RESULTS: Patients and their healthy siblings showed impaired emotion recognition but normal gender recognition compared with controls. Patients'performance did not improve despite effective clinical stabilisation. CONCLUSIONS: Impaired performance in healthy siblings and time stability in patients provides evidence of impairment of facial emotion recognition as an actual phenotype of schizophrenia.
BACKGROUND: Epidemiological studies of schizophrenia suggest that this disorder has a substantial genetic component. Cognitive and social abilities, as well as the volumes of brain regions involved in emotion processing, have been found to be distributed along a continuum when comparing patients, siblings and controls, with siblings showing intermediate scores. AIMS: To establish whether facial expression recognition is impaired in unaffected siblings of patients. METHOD: Emotion and gender recognition were evaluated in a three-group pre-post study design in drug-naive patients with first-episode schizophrenia (n=40) and their unaffected siblings (n=30) compared with controls (n=26). RESULTS:Patients and their healthy siblings showed impaired emotion recognition but normal gender recognition compared with controls. Patients'performance did not improve despite effective clinical stabilisation. CONCLUSIONS: Impaired performance in healthy siblings and time stability in patients provides evidence of impairment of facial emotion recognition as an actual phenotype of schizophrenia.
Authors: Wolfgang Wölwer; Jürgen Brinkmeyer; Sanna Stroth; Marcus Streit; Andreas Bechdolf; Stephan Ruhrmann; Michael Wagner; Wolfgang Gaebel Journal: Schizophr Bull Date: 2011-03-14 Impact factor: 9.306
Authors: Simon A Surguladze; Eka D Chkonia; Archil R Kezeli; Maya O Roinishvili; Daniel Stahl; Anthony S David Journal: Schizophr Bull Date: 2010-12-01 Impact factor: 9.306
Authors: Matcheri S Keshavan; Shreedhar Kulkarni; Tejas Bhojraj; Alan Francis; Vaibhav Diwadkar; Debra M Montrose; Larry J Seidman; John Sweeney Journal: Front Hum Neurosci Date: 2010-03-09 Impact factor: 3.169
Authors: Anthony C Ruocco; James L Reilly; Leah H Rubin; Alex R Daros; Elliot S Gershon; Carol A Tamminga; Godfrey D Pearlson; S Kristian Hill; Matcheri S Keshavan; Ruben C Gur; John A Sweeney Journal: Schizophr Res Date: 2014-07-19 Impact factor: 4.939