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Gender differences in facial emotion recognition in persons with chronic schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

Elisabeth M. Weiss ,
Christian G. Kohler ,
Colleen M. Brensinger ,
Warren B. Bilker ,
James Loughead ,
Margarete Delazer  and
Karen A. Nolan
Elisabeth M. Weiss*
Affiliation:
Department of General Psychiatry, Medical University Innsbruck, Anichstrasse 35, 6020Innsbruck, Austria
Christian G. Kohler
Affiliation:
Neuropsychiatry Section, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Colleen M. Brensinger
Affiliation:
Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Warren B. Bilker
Affiliation:
Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
James Loughead
Affiliation:
Neuropsychiatry Section, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Margarete Delazer
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Medical University Innsbruck, Anichstrasse 35, 6020Innsbruck, Austria
Karen A. Nolan
Affiliation:
Nathan S Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +43 845 398 6561; fax: +43 845 398 6566. E-mail address: elisabeth.weiss@uibk.ac.at (E.M. Weiss).
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Abstract

Background

The aim of the present study was to investigate possible sex differences in the recognition of facial expressions of emotion and to investigate the pattern of classification errors in schizophrenic males and females. Such an approach provides an opportunity to inspect the degree to which males and females differ in perceiving and interpreting the different emotions displayed to them and to analyze which emotions are most susceptible to recognition errors.

Methods

Fifty six chronically hospitalized schizophrenic patients (38 men and 18 women) completed the Penn Emotion Recognition Test (ER40), a computerized emotion discrimination test presenting 40 color photographs of evoked happy, sad, anger, fear expressions and neutral expressions balanced for poser gender and ethnicity.

Results

We found a significant sex difference in the patterns of error rates in the Penn Emotion Recognition Test. Neutral faces were more commonly mistaken as angry in schizophrenic men, whereas schizophrenic women misinterpreted neutral faces more frequently as sad. Moreover, female faces were better recognized overall, but fear was better recognized in same gender photographs, whereas anger was better recognized in different gender photographs.

Conclusions

The findings of the present study lend support to the notion that sex differences in aggressive behavior could be related to a cognitive style characterized by hostile attributions to neutral faces in schizophrenic men.

Keywords

Gender differencesEmotion recognitionSchizophrenia
Type
Original article
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , March 2007 , pp. 116 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © Elsevier Masson SAS 2006

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