Eye movement during facial affect recognition by patients with schizophrenia, using Japanese pictures of facial affect.

A possible relationship between recognition of facial affect and aberrant eye movement was examined in patients with schizophrenia. A Japanese version of standard pictures of facial affect was prepared. These pictures of basic emotions (surprise, anger, happiness, disgust, fear, sadness) were shown to 19 schizophrenic patients and 20 healthy controls who identified emotions while their eye movements were measured. The proportion of correct identifications of 'disgust' was significantly lower for schizophrenic patients, their eye fixation time was significantly longer for all pictures of facial affect, and their eye movement speed was slower for some facial affects (surprise, fear, and sadness). One index, eye fixation time for "happiness," showed a significant difference between the high- and low-dosage antipsychotic drug groups. Some expected facial affect recognition disorder was seen in schizophrenic patients responding to the Japanese version of affect pictures, but there was no correlation between facial affect recognition disorder and aberrant eye movement.

Development of e-learning materials for psychiatric nursing education.

We created e-learning materials for psychiatric nursing as part of a project aimed at developing problem-solving ability in student nurses. The system consists of applying three functional study modules, namely, "understanding a case", "analysis", and "evaluation", to simulated patient cases. Many students find it difficult to visualize nursing situations in the field of psychiatric nursing. These materials make maximum use of the imaging features of computers to help students visualize the actual situation.