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Knobloch S, Leiding D, Wagels L, Regenbogen C, Kellermann T, Mathiak K, Schneider F, Derntl B, Habel U. Empathy in schizophrenia: neural alterations during emotion recognition and affective sharing. Front Psychiatry 2024; 15:1288028. [PMID: 38855645 PMCID: PMC11157094 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1288028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2023] [Accepted: 05/01/2024] [Indexed: 06/11/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction Deficits in emotion recognition and processing are characteristic for patients with schizophrenia [SCZ]. Methods We targeted both emotion recognition and affective sharing, one in static and one in dynamic facial stimuli, during functional magnetic resonance imaging [fMRI] in 22 SCZ patients and 22 matched healthy controls [HC]. Current symptomatology and cognitive deficits were assessed as potential influencing factors. Results Behaviorally, patients only showed a prolonged response time in age-discrimination trials. For emotion-processing trials, patients showed a difference in neural response, without an observable behavioral correlate. During emotion and age recognition in static stimuli, a reduced activation of the bilateral anterior cingulate cortex [ACC] and the right anterior insula [AI] emerged. In the affective sharing task, patients showed a reduced activation in the left and right caudate nucleus, right AI and inferior frontal gyrus [IFG], right cerebellum, and left thalamus, key areas of empathy. Discussion We conclude that patients have deficits in complex visual information processing regardless of emotional content on a behavioral level and that these deficits coincide with aberrant neural activation patterns in emotion processing networks. The right AI as an integrator of these networks plays a key role in these aberrant neural activation patterns and, thus, is a promising candidate area for neurofeedback approaches.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simon Knobloch
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Faculty of Medicine, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
- Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Center for Experimental Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Hamburg, Germany
- Psychiatry Neuroimaging Branch (PNB), Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Hamburg, Germany
| | - Delia Leiding
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Faculty of Medicine, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Lisa Wagels
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Faculty of Medicine, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
- Jülich-Aachen Research Alliance (JARA) – Translational Brain Medicine, Aachen, Germany
| | - Christina Regenbogen
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Faculty of Medicine, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Thilo Kellermann
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Faculty of Medicine, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
- Jülich-Aachen Research Alliance (JARA) – Translational Brain Medicine, Aachen, Germany
| | - Klaus Mathiak
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Faculty of Medicine, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
| | - Frank Schneider
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Faculty of Medicine, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
- Department of the History, Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine, Centre for Health and Society (chs), School of Medicine, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Birgit Derntl
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen Center for Mental Health (TüCMH), University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- German Center for Mental Health (DZPG), Partner Site Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Ute Habel
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Faculty of Medicine, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
- Jülich-Aachen Research Alliance (JARA) – Translational Brain Medicine, Aachen, Germany
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Facial Affect Recognition by Patients with Schizophrenia Using Human Avatars. J Clin Med 2021; 10:jcm10091904. [PMID: 33924939 PMCID: PMC8124197 DOI: 10.3390/jcm10091904] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2021] [Revised: 04/23/2021] [Accepted: 04/25/2021] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
People with schizophrenia have difficulty recognizing the emotions in the facial expressions of others, which affects their social interaction and functioning in the community. Static stimuli such as photographs have been used traditionally to examine deficiencies in the recognition of emotions in patients with schizophrenia, which has been criticized by some authors for lacking the dynamism that real facial stimuli have. With the aim of overcoming these drawbacks, in recent years, the creation and validation of virtual humans has been developed. This work presents the results of a study that evaluated facial recognition of emotions through a new set of dynamic virtual humans previously designed by the research team, in patients diagnosed of schizophrenia. The study included 56 stable patients, compared with 56 healthy controls. Our results showed that patients with schizophrenia present a deficit in facial affect recognition, compared to healthy controls (average hit rate 71.6% for patients vs 90.0% for controls). Facial expressions with greater dynamism (compared to less dynamic ones), as well as those presented from frontal view (compared to profile view) were better recognized in both groups. Regarding clinical and sociodemographic variables, the number of hospitalizations throughout life did not correlate with recognition rates. There was also no correlation between functioning or quality of life and recognition. A trend showed a reduction in the emotional recognition rate as a result of increases in Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), being statistically significant for negative PANSS. Patients presented a learning effect during the progression of the task, slightly greater in comparison to the control group. This finding is relevant when designing training interventions for people with schizophrenia. Maintaining the attention of patients and getting them to improve in the proposed tasks is a challenge for today’s psychiatry.
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Peveretou F, Radke S, Derntl B, Habel U. A Short Empathy Paradigm to Assess Empathic Deficits in Schizophrenia. Behav Sci (Basel) 2020; 10:bs10020041. [PMID: 31991547 PMCID: PMC7071360 DOI: 10.3390/bs10020041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/05/2019] [Revised: 01/20/2020] [Accepted: 01/21/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Empathy is important for successful social interaction and maintaining relationships. Several studies detected impairments in empathic abilities in schizophrenia, with some even indicating a broader deficit in several components, including emotion recognition, perspective taking, and affective responsiveness. The aim of our study was to validate a short version of the previous empathy paradigm as a reliable and easily applicable method to assess empathic deficits in patients with schizophrenia potentially within clinical routine. To do so, we applied the short version to 30 patients (14 females) diagnosed with schizophrenia meeting the DSM-5 criteria and 30 well-matched healthy controls (14 females). The data analysis indicates a significant empathic deficit in patients due to worse performance in all three domains. We managed to replicate most of the findings of our previous study. In contrary to the previous study, significant correlations between performance in the empathy tasks and psychopathology occurred: the severity of negative symptoms was negatively associated with performance in the emotion recognition task and the affective responsiveness task. Gender did not significantly affect performance in the empathy tasks. Regarding the results, our short empathy paradigm appears to be a valid method in assessing empathic impairments in schizophrenia that may be useful in clinical routine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Foteini Peveretou
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Faculty of Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany; (S.R.); (U.H.)
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +49-241-80-80368; Fax: +49-241-80-82401
| | - Sina Radke
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Faculty of Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany; (S.R.); (U.H.)
- Jülich Aachen Research Alliance—BRAIN Institute I: Brain Structure–Function Relationships: Decoding the Human Brain at Systemic Levels, Research Center Jülich GmbH and RWTH Aachen University, Wilhelm-Johnen-Strasse, 52425 Jülich, Germany
| | - Birgit Derntl
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School, University of Tübingen, Calwerstrasse 14, 72076 Tübingen, Germany;
| | - Ute Habel
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Faculty of Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstrasse 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany; (S.R.); (U.H.)
- Jülich Aachen Research Alliance—BRAIN Institute I: Brain Structure–Function Relationships: Decoding the Human Brain at Systemic Levels, Research Center Jülich GmbH and RWTH Aachen University, Wilhelm-Johnen-Strasse, 52425 Jülich, Germany
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