情緒加工缺損不僅是精神分裂癥患者的一個(gè)核心癥狀,，也可作為預(yù)測(cè)患者預(yù)后狀況的一個(gè)關(guān)鍵因素,。
近日，《精神分裂癥研究》雜志上刊登了一項(xiàng)研究成果稱，中科院心理健康重點(diǎn)實(shí)驗(yàn)室神經(jīng)心理學(xué)與應(yīng)用認(rèn)知神經(jīng)科學(xué)實(shí)驗(yàn)室陳楚僑課題組在此方面獲進(jìn)展,，他們?cè)谠噲D探討情緒識(shí)別異常是否可作為精神分裂癥的一個(gè)生物標(biāo)記時(shí)發(fā)現(xiàn),，精神分裂癥患者未發(fā)病的兄弟姐妹已表現(xiàn)出輕微的面孔情緒加工異常。
據(jù)介紹,，已有的情緒加工缺損方面的研究主要以精神分裂癥患者作為被試,，且患者主要來自西方國(guó)家。此外,，情緒知覺和情緒加工受文化因素影響,，因此人們對(duì)一些精神分裂癥高危個(gè)體是否存在類似的情緒加工異常知之甚少。
在此項(xiàng)最新研究中,，陳楚僑和博士生李會(huì)杰設(shè)計(jì)了一個(gè)功能磁共振成像實(shí)驗(yàn),，邀請(qǐng)了36名被試，分別為精神分裂癥患者,、患者未發(fā)病的兄弟姐妹和健康控制組,，每組各12人參與實(shí)驗(yàn)，判斷“快樂”,、“害怕”和“中性情緒面孔”的情緒效價(jià),。
研究結(jié)果表明：精神分裂癥患者未發(fā)病的兄弟姐妹在加工情緒面孔時(shí)表現(xiàn)出和患者非常類似的缺損——這兩組被試的社會(huì)腦神經(jīng)網(wǎng)絡(luò)（比如運(yùn)動(dòng)前回和額上回）激活異常；其異常程度較精神分裂癥患者稍輕,。該發(fā)現(xiàn)表明,，遺傳學(xué)上具有精神分裂癥高風(fēng)險(xiǎn)的個(gè)體，如患者未發(fā)病的兄弟姐妹在面部情緒加工過程中表現(xiàn)出輕度缺損,，而且這種缺損可能是精神分裂癥一個(gè)潛在的內(nèi)表型,。
該研究受到中科院知識(shí)創(chuàng)新工程、“973”項(xiàng)目和國(guó)家杰出青年基金項(xiàng)目的支持,。此外,，中科院心理所磁共振成像研究中心也為研究提供了幫助。(生物谷 Bioon.com)
doi:10.1016/j.schres.2011.10.019
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Facial emotion processing in patients with schizophrenia and their non-psychotic siblings: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study
Hui-jie Li, Raymond C.K. Chan, Qi-yong Gong, Yu Liu, Shan-ming Liu, David Shum, Zhen-ling Ma
Background
Previous studies have shown that patients with schizophrenia show abnormalities in brain activation when processing emotional faces. However, very few studies have examined if such abnormalities are also found in non-western patient samples and in at-risk individuals. The current study explored whether patients with schizophrenia and siblings of patients in China would show abnormal brain activation during processing of emotional faces.
Methods
Thirty-six participants (three groups of twelve each of patients with schizophrenia, nonpsychotic siblings, and healthy controls) took part in the study. They were administered a task to judge emotional valence of three types of faces (viz., happy, fearful, and neutral), during fMRI scanning.
Results
Results of this study demonstrated that patients with schizophrenia showed abnormalities in the social brain neural circuit during facial emotion processing, in comparison with nonpsychotic siblings and healthy controls. Patients with schizophrenia demonstrated lower activation right superior and middle frontal gyrus, left precentral gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus and left insula in comparison with healthy controls; and showed abnormal activation in bilateral inferior and middle frontal gyri, right orbital frontal gyrus, left superior and middle temporal gyrus, bilateral insula, and right superior parietal gyrus/postcentral gyrus when compared with their nonpyschotic siblings. Meanwhile, patients with schizophrenia showed greater activation in left middle frontal gyrus than healthy controls, and overactivation in bilateral middle frontal gyri, right orbital frontal gyrus and left middle temporal gyrus than their nonpsychotic siblings during processing of fearful faces. Moreover, nonpsychotic siblings seemed to share some similar dysfunctions in processing facial expressions as their psychotic probands, the two groups both showed abnormal activation in precentral and superior frontal gyri, and such abnormal activation lied between patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls.
Conclusions
The current findings support the universality of emotion perception impairments in schizophrenia, and also suggest that facial emotion perception might be a potential endophenotype of schizophrenia.
