Sensory Contributions to Impaired Prosodic Processing in Schizophrenia

Functional significance of preserved affect recognition in schizophrenia

Affect recognition as an independent social function determinant in schizophrenia

Positive and negative affect recognition in schizophrenia: a comparison with substance abuse and normal control subjects

Modulation of auditory temporal processing, speech in noise perception, auditory-verbal memory, and reading efficiency by anodal tDCS in children with dyslexia

Deficits in facial affect recognition among antisocial populations: A meta-analysis

SUMMARYNeuronal oscillations are suggested to play an important role in auditory working memory (WM), but their contribution to content-specific representations has remained unclear. Here, we measure magnetoencephalography during a retro-cueing task with parametric ripple-sound stimuli, which are spectrotemporally similar to speech but resist non-auditory memory strategies. Using machine learning analyses, with rigorous between-subject cross-validation and non-parametric permutation testing, we show that memorized sound content is strongly represented in phase-synchronization patterns between subregions of auditory and frontoparietal cortices. These phase-synchronization patterns predict the memorized sound content steadily across the studied maintenance period. In addition to connectivity-based representations, there are indices of more local, “activity silent” representations in auditory cortices, where the decoding accuracy of WM content significantly increases after task-irrelevant “impulse stimuli.” Our results demonstrate that synchronization patterns across auditory sensory and association areas orchestrate neuronal coding of auditory WM content. This connectivity-based coding scheme could also extend beyond the auditory domain.

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Metacognitive deficits predict future levels of negative symptoms in schizophrenia controlling for neurocognition, affect recognition, and self-expectation of goal attainment

Recognition of disgust is selectively preserved in Alzheimer's disease

Twenty-three acute schizophrenics, 21 acute major depressives (Research Diagnostic Criteria), and 15 normal controls participated in a study on facial expression and emotional face recognition. Under clinical conditions, spontaneous facial expression was assessed according to the affective flattening section of the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms. Under experimental laboratory conditions involuntary (emotion-eliciting interview) and voluntary facial expression (imitation and simulation of six basic emotions) were recorded on videotape, from which a raterbased analysis of intensity or correctness of facial activity was obtained. Emotional face recognition was also assessed under experimental conditions using the same stimulus material. All subjects were assessed twice (within 4 weeks), controlling for change of the psychopathological status in the patient groups. In schizophrenics, neuroleptic drug influence was controlled by random allocation to treatment with either haloperidol or perazine. The main findings were that schizophrenics and depressives are characterized by different quantitative, qualitative, and temporal patterns of affect-related dysfunctions. In particular, schizophrenics demonstrated a trait-like deficit in affect recognition and in their spontaneous and voluntary facial activity, irrespective of medication, drug type and dosage, or extrapyramidal side-effects. In depressives a stable deficit could be demonstrated only in their involuntary expression under emotion-eliciting interview conditions, whereas in the postacute phase a reduction in their voluntary expression became apparent. Differences in patterns of affect-related behavioral deficits may reflect dysfunctions in different underlying psychobiological systems.

Studies of basic (nonspeech) auditory processing in adults thought to have developmental dyslexia have yielded a variety of data. Yet there has been little consensus regarding the explanatory value of auditory processing in accounting for reading difficulties. Recently, however, a number of studies of basic auditory processing in children with developmental dyslexia have suggested that a reduced ability to discriminate the rate of change in amplitude envelope onsets (rise time) may be linked to phonological processing difficulties and thereby to reading difficulties. Here, we select a range of different rise-time tasks used with children, and give them to adults with developmental dyslexia, along with 2 other auditory tasks (intensity discrimination and temporal order judgment). Deficits in both rise-time perception and temporal order judgment were found to predict literacy attainment in adults with developmental dyslexia, but the data were suggestive of different causal pathways.

The core cognitive difficulty in developmental dyslexia involves phonological processing, but adults and children with dyslexia also have sensory impairments. Impairments in basic auditory processing show particular links with phonological impairments, and recent studies with dyslexic children across languages reveal a relationship between auditory temporal processing and sensitivity to rhythmic timing and speech rhythm. As rhythm is explicit in music, musical training might have a beneficial effect on the auditory perception of acoustic cues to rhythm in dyslexia. Here we took advantage of the presence of musicians with and without dyslexia in musical conservatoires, comparing their auditory temporal processing abilities with those of dyslexic non-musicians matched for cognitive ability. Musicians with dyslexia showed equivalent auditory sensitivity to musicians without dyslexia and also showed equivalent rhythm perception. The data support the view that extensive rhythmic experience initiated during childhood (here in the form of music training) can affect basic auditory processing skills which are found to be deficient in individuals with dyslexia.

BACKGROUNDMedulloblastoma survivors are at risk for social deficits, yet underlying mechanisms are poorly understood.METHODSFacial affect recognition was assessed in 50 medulloblastoma survivors treated with craniospinal radiation (median[range] 21.4[12.5–30.9] years old, 11.0[5.7–22.6] years since diagnosis) and 56 non-cancer age-, sex-, and race-matched controls. Brain activation and connectivity in core regions/nodes of the face perception network (fusiform gyri, occipital gyri, superior temporal sulcus) were examined using structural and functional neuroimaging. Structural networks were constructed from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data and individual node strength and efficiency were assessed. Functional MRI (fMRI) was conducted using a 1-back facial affect recognition task with assessment of regional differences in task-related cerebral blood flow (BOLD). Standardized neurocognitive testing was completed with 24 hours of brain imaging.RESULTSMedulloblastoma survivors performed worse on a behavioral measure of facial affect recognition (P=0.003) compared to matched controls. During the facial affect recognition task, controls demonstrated greater BOLD activation of the left and right fusiform gyri and the left and right middle occipital gyri compared to survivors (P’s<0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons). DTI indicated weaker core node strength in survivors in the right lateral occipital gyri (P=0.02) and efficiency was lower in the left (P=0.01) and right (P=0.03) occipital gyri compared to controls.CONCLUSIONSMedulloblastoma survivors have deficits in facial affect recognition and reduced activation and efficiency in brain regions comprising the face perception network compared to matched controls. Interventions targeting this specific skill and neural network may improve social functioning in survivors.

To determine (1) alexithymia, affect recognition, and empathy differences in participants with and without traumatic brain injury (TBI); (2) the amount of affect recognition variance explained by alexithymia; and (3) the amount of empathy variance explained by alexithymia and affect recognition. Sixty adults with moderate-to-severe TBI; 60 age and gender-matched controls. Participants were evaluated for alexithymia (difficulty identifying feelings, difficulty describing feelings, and externally-oriented thinking); facial and vocal affect recognition; and affective and cognitive empathy (empathic concern and perspective-taking, respectively). Participants with TBI had significantly higher alexithymia; poorer facial and vocal affect recognition; and lower empathy scores. For TBI participants, facial and vocal affect recognition variances were significantly explained by alexithymia (12% and 8%, respectively); however, the majority of the variances were accounted for by externally-oriented thinking alone. Affect recognition and alexithymia significantly accounted for 16.5% of cognitive empathy. Again, the majority of the variance was primarily explained by externally-oriented thinking. Affect recognition and alexithymia did not explain affective empathy. Results suggest that people who have a tendency to avoid thinking about emotions (externally-oriented thinking) are more likely to have problems recognizing others' emotions and assuming others' points of view. Clinical implications are discussed.

The goal of this study was to assess facial affect recognition abilities in subjects with various schizophrenia subtypes and subjects with major depression. A total of six disorganized, 21 paranoid and 18 residual subjects with schizophrenia (DSM-IV criteria) were compared with 21 subjects with major depression (DSM-IV criteria) and 30 matched healthy control subjects. Two experimental tasks requiring the sorting and rating of emotional facial expressions were applied. Disorganized and paranoid subjects showed strong impairments in the sorting of emotional facial expressions. Depressive subjects displayed only minor deficits, and residual subjects were unimpaired. Subjects with disorganized schizophrenia rated emotional facial expressions as more aroused, and depressive subjects rated them as less aroused, than the other study groups. Our study demonstrates strong deficits in facial affect recognition in subjects with schizophrenia and pronounced disorganized or psychotic symptoms. Deficits in facial affect recognition are specific to schizophrenia. They may be considered as a state marker of schizophrenia.