Many studies have shown that schizophrenic patients are noted to have deficits in the recognition and discrimination of facial emotions. in contrast, studies examining emotional sound perception are scarce.

Evaluate emotional sound perception (pleasantness/unpleasantness) in schizophrenic patients in early stages of the disease.

This study was performed on schizophrenic outpatients from the Psychiatry Departments of Hospital Santa Maria and Hospital Júlio de Matos, Lisbon. Sample group comprised 29 schizophrenic patients and 29 matched healthy controls, equal in sex and age. Evaluations included the Mini Mental State Examination; the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS); the Newcastle Battery of Pleasant and Unpleasant Sounds (NBPUS), which we developed to study this issue, and a visual scale of self-assessment of the emotional experience.

There was no statistical difference between groups. Results suggest that schizophrenic patients in early stages of the disease have a preserved emotional perception of sounds. No correlation was found between clinical severity measures (disease duration, PANSS total and sub scores) and mean unpleasantness/pleasantness rating, which may suggest that the emotional perception of sounds is rather stable during the first five years of illness.

These results need further investigation on bigger samples studies. Future research in this area is important for the larger study of emotion and cognition.