More evidence for generalized poor performance in facial emotion perception in schizophrenia.

Previous studies showing that schizophrenic patients have a deficit in the ability to perceive facial expressions of emotion in others often have not used a differential deficit design and standardized measures of emotion perception. Using standardized and cross-validated measures in a differential deficit design, S. L. Kerr and J. M. Neale (see record 1993-29687-001) found no evidence for a deficit specific to emotion perception among unmedicated schizophrenic patients. The present study replicated and extended the findings of Kerr and Neale in a sample of medicated schizophrenic patients. Results showed that medicated patients performed more poorly than controls overall; however, they performed no worse on facial emotion perception tasks than on a matched control task. These findings support Kerr and Neale's conclusion that schizophrenic patients do not have a differential deficit in facial emotion perception ability. Future research should examine the nature of schizophrenic patients generalized poor performance on tests of facial emotion perception. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)