Comparisons of facial emotion recognition in different social contexts among patients with schizophrenia, major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder

Li-Jun Wang; Tian-Hua Cheng; Jia-Sen Geng; Juan Yang; Chang Liu; Guo-Hui Zhu; Jia-Cheng Luo; Gui-Zhen Wang; Xiang He Zhu; Yi Wang; Jia Huang; Yan-Yu Wang

doi:10.1016/j.ajp.2023.103566

Comparisons of facial emotion recognition in different social contexts among patients with schizophrenia, major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder

Asian J Psychiatr. 2023 May:83:103566. doi: 10.1016/j.ajp.2023.103566. Epub 2023 Mar 21.

Authors

Li-Jun Wang¹, Tian-Hua Cheng¹, Jia-Sen Geng¹, Juan Yang², Chang Liu², Guo-Hui Zhu², Jia-Cheng Luo¹, Gui-Zhen Wang³, Xiang He Zhu¹, Yi Wang⁴, Jia Huang⁵, Yan-Yu Wang⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychology, Weifang Medical University, Shandong 261053, China.
² Mental Health Centre of Weifang city, Shandong 261071, China.
³ School of Psychology, Weifang Medical University, Shandong 261053, China; Outpatient department of clinical psychology, Mental Health Centre of Linyi city, Shandong 276005, China.
⁴ CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing 100101, China; Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Institute of Psychology, Beijing 100101, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100048, China.
⁵ CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing 100101, China; Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Institute of Psychology, Beijing 100101, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100048, China. Electronic address: huangj@psych.ac.cn.
⁶ School of Psychology, Weifang Medical University, Shandong 261053, China. Electronic address: wangyanyu@wfmc.edu.cn.

PMID: 36965453
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajp.2023.103566

Abstract

Background: Previous studies have found that patients with schizophrenia (SCZ), major depressive disorder (MDD), and bipolar disorder (BD) all have facial emotion recognition deficits, but the differences and similarities of these deficits in the three groups of patients under different social interaction situations are not clear. The present study aims to compare the ability of facial emotion recognition in three different conversation situations from a cross-diagnostic perspective.

Methods: Thirty-three participants with SCZ, 35 participants with MDD, and 30 participants with BD were recruited, along with 31 healthy controls. A computer-based task was given to assess the ability of Facial Emotion Categorization (FEC) under three different conversational situations (praise, blame, and inquiry).

Results: In the "praise" situation, patients with SCZ, MDD and BD were all slower to recognize anger emotion than the healthy controls. In all three clinical groups, patients with SCZ recognized angry faces faster than those with MDD and BD on a continuum from happy faces to angry faces in the "inquiry" situation, while no significant difference was found in the latter two groups. In addition, no significant defect was found in the percentage and threshold of angry face recognition in all three patient groups.

Conclusions: Our findings indicate that patients with SCZ, MDD, and BD share both common and distinct deficits in facial emotion recognition during social interactions, which may be beneficial for early screening and precise intervention for these mental disorders.

Keywords: Bipolar disorder; Cross-diagnostic comparison; Facial emotion recognition; Major depressive disorder; Schizophrenia.

MeSH terms

Bipolar Disorder* / diagnosis
Depressive Disorder, Major* / diagnosis
Emotions
Facial Expression
Facial Recognition*
Humans
Schizophrenia* / complications
Social Environment