Schizophrenia Research
Volume 78, Issue 1 , Pages 61-67, 1 October 2005

Schizophrenia and processing of facial emotions: Sex matters

  • Marion R.M. Scholten

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, University Medical Centre, Utrecht, the Netherlands
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +31 30 250 8180; fax: +31 30 250 5466.
    • ,
  • André Aleman

      Affiliations

    • BCN NeuroImaging Centre, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
    • Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
    • ,
  • Barbara Montagne

      Affiliations

    • Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
    • ,
  • René S. Kahn

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, University Medical Centre, Utrecht, the Netherlands

Received 14 April 2005; received in revised form 14 June 2005; accepted 16 June 2005.

Abstract 

The aim of this study was to examine sex differences in emotion processing in patients with schizophrenia and control subjects. To this end, 53 patients with schizophrenia (28 men and 25 women), and 42 controls (21 men and 21 women) were assessed with the use of a facial affect recognition morphing task. Accuracy and sensitivity scores were measured. Women performed better than men in labelling negative emotions. On the same task, patients performed worse than control subjects, irrespective of sex, although the largest degree of impairment was seen in male patients. In conclusion, emotion perception was disproportionally affected in men with schizophrenia relative to women. This may explain, in part, why women with schizophrenia are less impaired in social life than men suffering from this illness.

Keywords: Schizophrenia, Sex differences, Facial emotion processing

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PII: S0920-9964(05)00251-3

doi:10.1016/j.schres.2005.06.019

Schizophrenia Research
Volume 78, Issue 1 , Pages 61-67, 1 October 2005

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