The effects of neuroleptics on facial action in schizophrenic patients.

This paper describes the influence of neuroleptic therapy on facial action in drug-naive schizophrenics. In a comparative study of medicated and unmedicated schizophrenic patients, the coordinates of 12 small light-reflecting points, attached to subjects' faces, were computer-recorded and analyzed automatically during a semi-standardized clinical interview. In addition, facial activity in videotaped interviews was coded using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS). Each sample group comprised of eight patients with the DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria "schizophrenia" or "schizophreniform disorder". Subjects were studied on two occasions, one shortly after admission to the hospital, the other three weeks later. Group 1 was unmedicated during the first session, whereas group 2 was medicated throughout the study. Three weeks after the start of medication, at the second interview, both recording methods showed a reduction in facial activity and facial expression across all subjects in group 1. The facial action of patients in group 2, however, remained unchanged.

[Are early stages of visual information processing in schizophrenic patients disturbed? Results of an experimental study]. / Sind frühe Stufen der visuellen Informationsverarbeitung bei Schizophrenen gestört? Ergebnisse einer experimentellen Studie.

In a study of early stages of visual information processing in schizophrenic patients, twenty acute schizophrenics, twenty remitted schizophrenics and twenty chronic schizophrenics were compared with control groups consisting of twenty healthy subjects and twenty depressive patients (psychiatric controls). The groups tested were matched for age, sex, and educational level. The psychiatric groups were selected according to the research diagnostic criteria (RDC) of Spitzer et al. Performance in a picture integration task and a backward masking task were measured. Chronic and acute schizophrenics showed similarly poor performance in the masking task compared to both control groups. The remitted schizophrenics, however, did not differ from the healthy controls or from the psychiatric controls. This finding contradicts the claim recently made by Merritt et al., that poor performance in backward masking is a trait marker for schizophrenia.

Computer-based analysis of facial action in schizophrenic and depressed patients.

With a newly developed computer analysis the space coordinates of light-reflecting points, attached to a subjects' face, were recorded across time with high temporal and spatial resolution. Under different experimental conditions the facial actions of 20 schizophrenics, 20 depressives and 20 normal controls were analysed. Furthermore, raters watched the synchronously recorded video versions of the subject's face and rated them as to expressivity. The findings indicate that depressive and schizophrenic patients exhibited reduced facial activity in the upper part of their face in social interaction conditions. Schizophrenic patients showed reduced facial action responsivity across different conditions and emotions. All patients were judged to be less expressive than normal controls by raters, suggesting apparent disintegrated elements in facial activity, although when computer-analysed they exhibited the same amount of facial activity.