TY - JOUR
T1 - Visual exploration of emotional faces in schizophrenia using masks from the Japanese Noh theatre
AU - Fasshauer, Teresa
AU - Sprenger, Andreas
AU - Silling, Karen
AU - Silberg, Johanna Elisa
AU - Vosseler, Anne
AU - Minoshita, Seiko
AU - Satoh, Shinji
AU - Dorr, Michael
AU - Koelkebeck, Katja
AU - Lencer, Rebekka
N1 - Funding Information:
The study was supported by a grant of Innovative Medizinische Forschung of the Medical Faculty of Muenster ( KOE 121302 ). We are grateful to all participants for their valuable contribution to this study. We would like to thank Christopher Zeiser for his contribution to data analyses. Last but not least we thank the staff of Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of University of Muenster for support with recruitment procedures.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd
Copyright:
Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/10
Y1 - 2019/10
N2 - Studying eye movements during visual exploration is widely used to investigate visual information processing in schizophrenia. Here, we used masks from the Japanese Noh theatre to study visual exploration behavior during an emotional face recognition task and a brightness evaluation control task using the same stimuli. Eye movements were recorded in 25 patients with schizophrenia and 25 age-matched healthy controls while participants explored seven photos of Japanese Noh masks tilted to seven different angles. Additionally, participants were assessed on seven upright binary black and white pictures of these Noh masks (Mooney-like pictures), seven Upside-down pictures (180° upside-down turned Mooneys), and seven Neutral pictures. Participants either had to indicate whether they had recognized a face and its emotional expression, or they had to evaluate the brightness of the picture (total N = 56 trials). We observed a clear effect of inclination angle of Noh masks on emotional ratings (p < 0.001) and visual exploration behavior in both groups. Controls made larger saccades than patients when not being able to recognize a face in upside-down Mooney pictures (p < 0.01). Patients also made smaller saccades when exploring pictures for brightness (p < 0.05). Exploration behavior in patients was related to depressive symptom expression during emotional face recognition but not during brightness evaluation. Our findings suggest that visual exploration behavior in patients with schizophrenia is less flexible than in controls depending on the specific task requirements, specifically when exploring physical aspects of the environment.
AB - Studying eye movements during visual exploration is widely used to investigate visual information processing in schizophrenia. Here, we used masks from the Japanese Noh theatre to study visual exploration behavior during an emotional face recognition task and a brightness evaluation control task using the same stimuli. Eye movements were recorded in 25 patients with schizophrenia and 25 age-matched healthy controls while participants explored seven photos of Japanese Noh masks tilted to seven different angles. Additionally, participants were assessed on seven upright binary black and white pictures of these Noh masks (Mooney-like pictures), seven Upside-down pictures (180° upside-down turned Mooneys), and seven Neutral pictures. Participants either had to indicate whether they had recognized a face and its emotional expression, or they had to evaluate the brightness of the picture (total N = 56 trials). We observed a clear effect of inclination angle of Noh masks on emotional ratings (p < 0.001) and visual exploration behavior in both groups. Controls made larger saccades than patients when not being able to recognize a face in upside-down Mooney pictures (p < 0.01). Patients also made smaller saccades when exploring pictures for brightness (p < 0.05). Exploration behavior in patients was related to depressive symptom expression during emotional face recognition but not during brightness evaluation. Our findings suggest that visual exploration behavior in patients with schizophrenia is less flexible than in controls depending on the specific task requirements, specifically when exploring physical aspects of the environment.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85072570291&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107193
DO - 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.107193
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 31518577
AN - SCOPUS:85072570291
SN - 0028-3932
VL - 133
JO - Neuropsychologia
JF - Neuropsychologia
M1 - 107193
ER -