The Effect of Schizotypal Personality Trait on the Ability of Facial Affect Identification in Healthy Person

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the ability of facial affect perception is associated with schizotypal personality traits in healthy normal controls. METHODS: 241 normal subjects were recruited in this study. The age range of all subjects was from 19 to 63 years. The schizotypal personality questionnaire(SPQ) and facial affect identification test(FAIT), which were developed and standardized in Korea, were applied. Subjects from high 1 standard deviation(H group, N=40) and low 1 standard deviation(L group, N=26) on SPQ score were compared. RESULTS: We found that the H group showed significantly reduced ability on the correctness of sadness and neutral compared with the L group. But, no significant association between SPQ and intensity or reaction point was observed in all subjects. CONCLUSION: This study suggests the individuals with high schizotypal personality trait have impairments on the facial affect identification. Also, these findings may provide the reasonable explanation of social cognition deficit of schizotypal personality disorder.