The British Journal of Psychiatry (2008) 192: 191-196. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.106.032649
© 2008 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Data supplement
Right arrow Submit an eLetter
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Related articles in BJP
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Michalopoulou, P. G.
Right arrow Articles by Shergill, S. S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Michalopoulou, P. G.
Right arrow Articles by Shergill, S. S.

Facial fear processing and psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia: functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Panayiota G. Michalopoulou, MD, CSI Lab

Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, UK and Second Department of Psychiatry, Attikon General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School, Athens, Greece

Simon Surguladze, MD, DSc

Section of Neuroscience and Emotion, Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London

Lucy A. Morley, MBBS, PhD, MRCPsych

Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London

Vincent P. Giampietro, PhD

Brain Image Analysis Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London

Robin M. Murray, MD, DSc, FRCPsych

Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London

Sukhwinder S. Shergill, MBBS, PhD, MRCPsych, CSI Lab

Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, and Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK

Correspondence: Dr Panayiota G. Michalopoulou, Box PO 67, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK. Email: spdppam{at}iop.kcl.ac.uk

Declaration of interest

None.

Background

The recognition of negative facial affect is impaired in people with schizophrenia. The neural underpinnings of this deficit and its relationship to the symptoms of psychosis are still unclear.

Aims

To examine the association between positive and negative psychotic symptoms and activation within the amygdala and extrastriate visual regions of patients with schizophrenia during fearful and neutral facial expression processing.

Method

Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure neural responses to neutral and fearful facial expressions in 11 patients with schizophrenia and 9 healthy volunteers during an implicit emotional task.

Results

No association between amygdala activation and positive symptoms was found; the activation within the left superior temporal gyrus was negatively associated with the negative symptoms of the patients.

Conclusions

Our results indicate an association between impaired extrastriate visual processing of facial fear and negative symptoms, which may underlie the previously reported difficulties of patients with negative symptoms in the recognition of facial fear.


Related articles in BJP:

Highlights of this issue
Sukhwinder S. Shergill
BJP 2008 192: A10. [Full Text]  



This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Schizophr BullHome page
H. Li, R. C.K. Chan, G. M. McAlonan, and Q.-y. Gong
Facial Emotion Processing in Schizophrenia: A Meta-analysis of Functional Neuroimaging Data
Schizophr Bull, May 20, 2009; (2009) sbn190v2.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Schizophr BullHome page
P. J. Johnston, P. G. Enticott, A. K. Mayes, K. E. Hoy, S. E. Herring, and P. B. Fitzgerald
Symptom Correlates of Static and Dynamic Facial Affect Processing in Schizophrenia: Evidence of a Double Dissociation?
Schizophr Bull, October 26, 2008; (2008) sbn136v1.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Schizophr BullHome page
D. I. Leitman, J. Loughead, D. H. Wolf, K. Ruparel, C. G. Kohler, M. A. Elliott, W. B. Bilker, R. E. Gur, and R. C. Gur
Abnormal Superior Temporal Connectivity During Fear Perception in Schizophrenia
Schizophr Bull, July 1, 2008; 34(4): 673 - 678.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]