Can an Experimental White Noise Task Assess Psychosis Vulnerability in Adult Healthy Controls?

Background This is an extension of a paper published earlier. We investigated the association between the tendency to detect speech illusion in random noise and levels of positive schizotypy in a sample of 185 adult healthy controls. Materials and methods Subclinical positive, negative and depressive symptoms were assessed with the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE); positive and negative schizotypy was assessed with the Structured Interview for Schizotypy-Revised (SIS-R). Results Speech illusions were associated with positive schizotypy (OR: 4.139, 95% CI: 1.074-15.938; p = 0.039) but not with negative schizotypy (OR: 1.151, 95% CI: 0.183-7.244; p = 0.881). However, the association of positive schizotypy with speech illusions was no longer significant after adjusting for age, sex and WAIS-III (OR: 2.577, 95% CI: 0.620-10.700; p = 0.192). Speech illusions were not associated with self-reported CAPE measures. Conclusions The association between schizotypy and the tendency to assign meaning in random noise in healthy controls may be mediated by cognitive ability and not constitute an independent trait

Socio-demographic and cognition variables https://figshare.com/s/a9b7606c8ef68f9253fd.

<p>Socio-demographic and cognition variables <a href="https://figshare.com/s/a9b7606c8ef68f9253fd" target="_blank">https://figshare.com/s/a9b7606c8ef68f9253fd</a>.</p

Associations between white noise speech illusion and SIS-R and CAPE https://figshare.com/s/09c048d70d0c4ef3ed0c.

<p>Associations between white noise speech illusion and SIS-R and CAPE <a href="https://figshare.com/s/09c048d70d0c4ef3ed0c" target="_blank">https://figshare.com/s/09c048d70d0c4ef3ed0c</a>.</p

Differences in Facial Emotion Recognition between First Episode Psychosis, Borderline Personality Disorder and Healthy Controls

BACKGROUND:Facial emotion recognition (FER) is essential to guide social functioning and behaviour for interpersonal communication. FER may be altered in severe mental illness such as in psychosis and in borderline personality disorder patients. However, it is unclear if these FER alterations are specifically related to psychosis. Awareness of FER alterations may be useful in clinical settings to improve treatment strategies. The aim of our study was to examine FER in patients with severe mental disorder and their relation with psychotic symptomatology. MATERIALS AND METHODS:Socio-demographic and clinical variables were collected. Alterations on emotion recognition were assessed in 3 groups: patients with first episode psychosis (FEP) (n = 64), borderline personality patients (BPD) (n = 37) and healthy controls (n = 137), using the Degraded Facial Affect Recognition Task. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, Structured Interview for Schizotypy Revised and Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences scales were used to assess positive psychotic symptoms. WAIS III subtests were used to assess IQ. RESULTS:Kruskal-Wallis analysis showed a significant difference between groups on the FER of neutral faces score between FEP, BPD patients and controls and between FEP patients and controls in angry face recognition. No significant differences were found between groups in the fear or happy conditions. There was a significant difference between groups in the attribution of negative emotion to happy faces. BPD and FEP groups had a much higher tendency to recognize happy faces as negatives. There was no association with the different symptom domains in either group. CONCLUSIONS:FEP and BPD patients have problems in recognizing neutral faces more frequently than controls. Moreover, patients tend to over-report negative emotions in recognition of happy faces. Although no relation between psychotic symptoms and FER alterations was found, these deficits could contribute to a patient's misinterpretations in daily life

Comparison of the percentage of correct answers for emotion recognition in FEP, BPD and HC.

<p>Unadjusted and adjusted analyses.</p

Comparison of the percentage of subjects’ attribution when they failed in FEP, BPD and HC.

<p>Unadjusted and adjusted analyses.</p

Clinical variables.

<p>Clinical variables.</p

Socio-demographic variables.

<p>Socio-demographic variables.</p