Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T04:34:18.670Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Facial emotion recognition in adolescents with psychotic-like experiences: a school-based sample from the general population

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2012

S. Roddy ,
L. Tiedt ,
I. Kelleher ,
M. C. Clarke ,
J. Murphy ,
C. Rawdon ,
R. A. P. Roche ,
M. E. Calkins ,
J. A. Richard  and
C. G. Kohler
...Show all authors
S. Roddy*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
L. Tiedt
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
I. Kelleher
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
M. C. Clarke
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
J. Murphy
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
C. Rawdon
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland
R. A. P. Roche
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland
M. E. Calkins
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
J. A. Richard
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
C. G. Kohler
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
M. Cannon
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland Department of Psychiatry, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
*
*Address for correspondence: Dr S. Roddy, Department of Psychiatry, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Education and Research Centre, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin 9, Ireland. (Email: sarah.roddy@gmail.com)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Psychotic symptoms, also termed psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) in the absence of psychotic disorder, are common in adolescents and are associated with increased risk of schizophrenia-spectrum illness in adulthood. At the same time, schizophrenia is associated with deficits in social cognition, with deficits particularly documented in facial emotion recognition (FER). However, little is known about the relationship between PLEs and FER abilities, with only one previous prospective study examining the association between these abilities in childhood and reported PLEs in adolescence. The current study was a cross-sectional investigation of the association between PLEs and FER in a sample of Irish adolescents.

Method

The Adolescent Psychotic-Like Symptom Screener (APSS), a self-report measure of PLEs, and the Penn Emotion Recognition-40 Test (Penn ER-40), a measure of facial emotion recognition, were completed by 793 children aged 10–13 years.

Results

Children who reported PLEs performed significantly more poorly on FER (β=−0.03, p=0.035). Recognition of sad faces was the major driver of effects, with children performing particularly poorly when identifying this expression (β=−0.08, p=0.032).

Conclusions

The current findings show that PLEs are associated with poorer FER. Further work is needed to elucidate causal relationships with implications for the design of future interventions for those at risk of developing psychosis.

Keywords

Adolescentchildfacial emotion recognitionpsychotic symptomspsychotic-like experience
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 42 , Issue 10 , October 2012 , pp. 2157 - 2166
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Addington, J, Penn, D, Woods, SW, Addington, D, Perkins, DO (2008). Facial affect recognition in individuals at clinical high risk for psychoses. British Journal of Psychiatry 192, 67–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alemany, S, Arias, B, Aguilera, M, Villa, H, Moya, J, Ibanez, MI, Vossen, H, Gasto, C, Ortet, G, Fananas, L (2011). Childhood abuse, the BDNF-Val66Met polymorphism and adult psychotic-like experiences. British Journal of Psychiatry 199, 38–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Amminger, GP, Schafer, MR, Papageorgiou, K, Klier, CM, Schlogelhofer, M, Mossaheb, N, Werneck-Rohrer, S, Nelson, B, McGorry, PD (2011). Emotion recognition in individuals at clinical high-risk for schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin. Published online: 21 March 2011. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbr015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrera, M, Maurer, D (1981). The perception of facial expressions by the three-month-old. Child Development 52, 203–206.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bartels-Velthuis, A, Jenner, JA, van de Willigie, G, van Os, J, Wiersma, D (2010). Prevalence and correlates of auditory vocal hallucinations in middle childhood. British Journal of Psychiatry 196, 41–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bijl, RV, Ravelli, A, van Zessen, G (1998). Prevalence of psychiatric disorder in the general population: results of the Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study (NEMESIS). Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 33, 587–595.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bolte, S, Poustka, F (2003). The recognition of facial affect in autistic and schizophrenic subjects and their first-degree relatives. Psychological Medicine 33, 907–915.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Calkins, ME, Tepper, P, Gur, RC, Ragland, JD, Klei, L, Wiener, HW, Richard, J, Savage, RM, Allen, TB, O'Jile, J, Devlin, B, Kwentus, J, Ailyu, MH, Bradford, LD, Edwards, N, Lyons, PD, Nimgaonkar, VL, Santos, AB, Go, RC, Gur, RE (2010). Project among African-Americans to explore risks for schizophrenia (PAARTNERS): evidence for impairment and heritability of neurocognitive functioning in families of schizophrenic patients. American Journal of Psychiatry 167, 459–472.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camras, L, Allison, K (1985). Children's understanding of emotional facial expressions and verbal labels. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 9, 84–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corcoran, R, Frith, CD (2003). Autobiographical memory and theory of mind: evidence of a relationship in schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine 33, 897–905.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Corcoran, R, Mercer, G, Frith, C (1995). Schizophrenia, symptomatology and social inference: investigating theory of mind in people with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research 17, 5–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Couture, SM, Penn, DL, Roberts, DL (2006). The functional significance of social cognition in schizophrenia: a review. Schizophrenia Bulletin 32 (Suppl. 1), S44–S63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dickey, CC, Panych, LP, Voglmaier, MM, Niznikiewicz, MA, Terry, DP, Murphy, C, Zacks, R, Shenton, ME, McCarley, RW (2011). Facial emotion recognition and facial affect display in schizotypal personality disorder. Schizophrenia Research 131, 242–249.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Durand, K, Gallay, M, Seigneuric, A, Robichon, F, Baudouin, J-Y (2007). The development of facial emotion recognition: the role of configural information. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 97, 14–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eack, SM, Mermon, DE, Montrose, DM, Miewald, J, Gur, RE, Gur, RC, Sweeney, JA, Keshavan, MS (2010). Social cognition deficits among individuals at familial high risk for schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin 36, 1081–1088.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Edwards, J, Jackson, HJ, Pattison, PE (2002). Emotion recognition via facial expression and affective prosody in schizophrenia: a methodological review. Clinical Psychology Review 22, 789–832.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Edwards, J, Pattison, PE, Jackson, HJ, Wales, RJ (2001). Facial affect and affective prosody recognition in first-episode schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research 48, 235–253.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gaebel, W, Wolwer, W (1992). Facial expression and emotional face recognition in schizophrenia and depression. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 242, 46–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Germine, LT, Hooker, CI (2011). Face emotion recognition is related to individual differences in psychosis-proneness. Psychological Medicine 41, 937–947.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greenwood, TA, Braff, DL, Light, GA, Cadenhead, KS, Calkins, ME, Dobie, DJ, Freedman, R, Green, MF, Gur, RE, Gur, RC, Mintz, J, Nuechterlein, KH, Olincy, A, Radant, AD, Seidman, LJ, Siever, LJ, Silverman, JM, Stone, WS, Swerdlow, NR, Tsaung, DW, Tsaung, MT, Turetsky, BI, Schork, NJ (2007). Initial heritability analyses of endophenotypic measures of schizophrenia: the consortium on the genetics of schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry 64, 1242–1250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gur, RC, Ragland, JD, Moberg, PJ, Turner, TH, Bilker, WB, Kohler, C, Siegel, SJ, Gur, RE (2001). Computerized neurocognitive scanning: I. Methodology and validation in healthy people. Neuropsychopharmacology 25, 766–776.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gur, RE, Nimgaonkar, VL, Almasy, L, Calkins, ME, Ragland, JD, Pogue-Geile, MF, Kanes, S, Blangero, J, Gur, RC (2007). Neurocognitive endophenotypes in a multiplex multigenerational family study of schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry 164, 813–819.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanssen, M, Bak, M, Bijl, R, Vollebergh, W, van Os, J (2005). The incidence and outcome of subclinical psychotic experiences in the general population. British Journal of Clinical Psychology 44, 181–191.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoehl, S, Brauer, J, Brasse, G, Striano, T, Friederici, AD (2010). Children's processing of emotions expressed by peers and adults: an fMRI study. Social Neuroscience 5, 543–559.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hooker, C, Park, S (2002). Emotion processing and its relationship to social functioning in schizophrenia patients. Psychiatry Research 112, 41–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Horwood, J, Salvi, G, Thomas, K, Duffy, L, Gunnell, D, Hollis, C, Lewis, G, Menezes, P, Thompson, A, Wolke, D, Zammit, S, Harrison, G (2008). IQ and non-clinical psychotic symptoms in 12-year-olds: results from the ALSPAC birth cohort. British Journal of Psychiatry 193, 185–191.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johns, LC, Cannon, M, Singleton, N, Murray, RM, Farrell, M, Brugha, T, Bebbington, P, Jenkins, R, Meltzer, H (2004). Prevalence and correlates of self-reported psychotic symptoms in the British population. British Journal of Psychiatry 185, 298–305.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kee, KS, Horan, WP, Mintz, J, Green, MF (2004). Do the siblings of schizophrenia patients demonstrate affect perception deficits? Schizophrenia Research 67, 87–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kelleher, I, Cannon, M (2011). Psychotic-like experiences in the general population: characterizing a high-risk group for psychosis. Psychological Medicine 41, 1–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelleher, I, Harley, M, Lynch, F, Arseneault, L, Fitzpatrick, C, Cannon, M (2008). Associations between childhood trauma, bullying and psychotic symptoms among a school-based adolescent sample. British Journal of Psychiatry 193, 378–382.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kelleher, I, Harley, M, Murtagh, A, Cannon, M (2011). Are screening instruments valid for psychotic-like experiences? A validation study of screening questions for psychotic-like experiences using in-depth clinical interview. Schizophrenia Bulletin 37, 362–369.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, KS, Gallagher, TJ, Abelson, JM, Kessler, RC (1996). Lifetime prevalence, demographic risk factors, and diagnostic validity of non-affective psychosis as assessed in a US community sample. The National Comorbidity Survey. Archives of General Psychiatry 53, 1022–1031.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kessler, RC, McGonagle, KA, Zhao, S, Nelson, CB, Hughes, M, Eshleman, S, Wittchen, H-U, Kendler, KS (1994). Lifetime and 12-month prevalence of DSM-III-R psychiatric disorders in the United States: results from the National Comorbidity Survey. Archives of General Psychiatry 51, 8–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kohler, CG, Turner, TH, Bilker, WB, Bresinger, CM, Siegel, SJ, Kanes, SJ, Gur, RE, Gur, RC (2003). Facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia: intensity effects and error pattern. American Journal of Psychiatry 160, 1768–1774.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kohler, CG, Turner, TH, Stolar, NM, Bilker, WB, Brensinger, CM, Gur, RE, Gur, RC (2004). Differences in facial expressions of four universal emotions. Psychiatry Research 128, 235–244.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kohler, CG, Walker, JB, Martin, EA, Healey, KM, Moberg, PJ (2010). Facial emotion perception in schizophrenia: a meta-analytic review. Schizophrenia Research 36, 1009–1019.Google ScholarPubMed
Laurens, KR, Hodgins, S, Maughan, B, Murray, RM, Rutter, ML, Taylor, EA (2007). Community screening for psychotic-like experiences and other putative antecedents of schizophrenia in children aged 9–12 years. Schizophrenia Research 90, 130–146.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laurens, KR, West, SA, Murray, RM, Hodgins, S (2008). Psychotic-like experiences and other antecedents of schizophrenia in children aged 9–12 years: a comparison of ethnic and migrant groups in the United Kingdom. Psychological Medicine 38, 1103–1111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, H, Chan, RCK, McAlonan, GM, Gong, Q (2010). Facial emotion processing in schizophrenia: a meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging data. Schizophrenia Bulletin 36, 1029–1039.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lynch, F, Mills, C, Daly, I, Fitzpatrick, C (2004). Challenging times: a study to detect Irish adolescents at risk of psychiatric disorders and suicidal ideation. Journal of Adolescence 27, 441–451.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lynch, F, Mills, C, Daly, I, Fitzpatrick, C (2006). Challenging times: prevalence of psychiatric disorders and suicidal behaviours in Irish adolescents. Journal of Adolescence 29, 555–573.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mandal, MK, Pandey, R, Prasad, AB (1998). Facial expressions of emotions and schizophrenia: a review. Schizophrenia Bulletin 24, 399–412.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marenco, S, Weinberger, DR (2000). The neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia: following a trail of evidence from cradle to grave. Developmental Psychopathology 12, 501–527.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCown, W, Johnson, J, Austin, S, Shefsky, M (1988). Deficits in ability to decode facial affects in families of schizophrenics. Psychotherapy in Private Practice 6, 93–101.Google Scholar
Mikhailova, ES, Vladimirova, TV, Iznak, AF, Tsusulkovskaya, EJ, Sushko, NV (1996). Abnormal recognition of facial expression of emotions in depressed patients with major depression disorder and schizotypal personality disorder. Biological Psychiatry 40, 697–705.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Norton, D, McBain, R, Holt, DJ, Ongur, D, Chen, Y (2009). Association of impaired facial affect recognition with basic facial and visual processing deficits in schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry 65, 1094–1098.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nowicki, Jr. S, Duke, MP (1994). Individual differences in the nonverbal communication of affect: the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy Scale. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 18, 9–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Penn, DL, Corrigan, PW, Bentall, RP, Racenstein, JM, Newman, L (1997). Social cognition in schizophrenia. Psychological Bulletin 121, 114–132.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Philips, LK, Seidman, LJ (2008). Emotion processing in persons at risk for schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin 34, 888–903.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pinkham, AE, Penn, DL, Perkins, DO, Graham, KA, Siegel, M (2007). Emotion perception and social skill over the course of psychosis: a comparison of individuals ‘at-risk’ for psychosis and individuals with early and chronic schizophrenia spectrum illness. Current Opinion in Psychiatry 12, 198–212.Google ScholarPubMed
Pinkham, AE, Penn, DL, Perkins, DO, Lieberman, J (2003). Implications for the neural basis of social cognition for the study of schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry 160, 815–824.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pinkham, AE, Sasson, NJ, Calkins, ME, Richard, J, Hughett, P, Gur, RE, Gur, RC (2008). The other-race effect in face processing among African American and Caucasian individuals with schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry 165, 639–645.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pomarol-Clotet, E, Hynes, F, Ashwin, C, Bullmore, ET, McKenna, PJ, Laws, KR (2010). Facial emotion processing in schizophrenia: a non-specific neuropsychological deficit? Psychological Medicine 40, 911–919.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poreh, AR, Whitman, RD, Weber, M, Ross, T (1994). Facial recognition in hypothetically schizotypic college students: the role of generalized poor performance. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 182, 503–507.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poulton, R, Caspi, A, Moffit, TE, Cannon, M, Murray, R, Harrington, HL (2000). Children's self-reported psychotic symptoms and adult schizophreniform disorder: a 15-year longitudinal study. Archives of General Psychiatry 57, 1053–1058.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schneider, F, Gur, RC, Koch, K, Backes, V, Amunts, K, Shah, NJ, Bilker, W, Gur, RE, Habel, U (2006). Impairment in the specificity of emotion processing in schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry 163, 442–447.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Simonian, SD, Beidel, D, Turner, S, Berkes, J, Long, J (2001). Recognition of facial affect by children and adolescents diagnosed with social phobia. Child Psychiatry and Human Development 32, 137–145.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stata Corporation (2011). STATA Statistical Software, Release 11. Stata Corporation: College Station, TX.Google Scholar
Thompson, A, Sullivan, S, Heron, J, Thomas, K, Zammit, S, Horwood, J, Gunnell, D, Hollis, C, Lewis, G, Wolke, D, Harrison, G (2011). Childhood facial emotion and psychosis-like symptoms in a nonclinical population at 12 years of age: results from the ALSPAC birth cohort. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry 16, 136–157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toomey, R, Schuldberg, D (1995). Recognition and judgment of facial stimuli in schizotypal subjects. Journal of Communication Disorders 28, 193–203.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Os, J, Hanssen, M, Bijl, RV, Ravelli, A (2000). Strauss (1969) revisited: a psychosis continuum in the general population? Schizophrenia Research 45, 11–20.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Os, J, Linscott, RJ, Myin-Germeys, I, Delespaul, P, Krabbendam, L (2009). A systematic review and meta-analysis of the psychosis-continuum: evidence for a psychosis-proneness-persistence-impairment model of psychotic disorder. Psychological Medicine 39, 179–195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Rijn, S, Aleman, A, de Sonneville, L, Sprong, M, Ziermens, T, Schothorst, P, van Engeland, H, Swaab, H (2011). Misattribution of facial expressions of emotion in adolescents at increased risk of psychosis: the role of inhibitory control. Psychological Medicine 41, 499–508.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van 't Wout, M, Aleman, A, Kessels, RPC, Laroi, F, Kahn, RS (2004). Emotional processing in a non-clinical psychosis-prone sample. Schizophrenia Research 68, 271–281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waldeck, TL, Miller, LS (2000). Social deficits in schizotypal personality disorder. Psychiatry Research 93, 237–246.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walker-Andrews, AS (1997). Infants’ perception of expressive behaviors: differentiation of multimodal information. Psychological Bulletin 121, 437–456.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weiss, E, Stadelmann, E, Kohler, CG, Brensinger, C, Nolan, KA, Oberacher, H, Parson, W, Pitterl, F, Niederstatter, H, Kemmler, G, Hinterhuber, H, Marksteiner, J (2007). Differential effect of catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met genotype on emotional recognition abilities in healthy men and women. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society 13, 881–887.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Welham, J, Scott, J, Williams, G, Najman, J, Bor, W, O'Callaghan, M, McGrath, J (2009). Emotional and behavioural antecedents of young adults who screen positive for non-affective psychosis: a 21-year birth cohort study. Psychological Medicine 39,625–634.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whittaker, JF, Deakin, JF, Tomenson, B (2001). Face processing in schizophrenia: defining the deficit. Psychological Medicine 31, 499–507.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yung, AR, Nelson, B, Baker, K, Buckby, JA, Baksheev, G, Cosgrave, EM (2009). Psychotic-like experiences in a community sample of adolescents: implications for the continuum model of psychosis and prediction of schizophrenia. Australia and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 43, 118–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar