Journal List > Korean J Schizophr Res > v.15(1) > 1057775

Park, Chun, Park, Kim, and Kim: Deficit of Executive Control of Positive Emotional Information and Its Association with Social Anhedonia in Schizophrenia

Abstract

Objectives

Schizophrenia has been considered to be characterized by an abnormality in attention, especially in the executive control. Emotion is an important component of the executive control. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of emotion on the executive control in patients with schizophrenia.

Methods

Participants were 20 healthy controls and 19 subjects with schizophrenia. They viewed full-color pictures selected from the International Affective Picture System. During each trial, an emotional picture, which was either positive or negative, lit up on either the left or right side. Participants were instructed to respond to the emotional valance of each stimulus by pressing a button with their left or right index finger, while ignoring its presented side.

Results

There was a group difference in the response time, and patients with schizophrenia exhibited an impairment in the executive control of emotional information. However, there was no difference in the response time between the emotional conditions. In the patient group, the missing rate in the positive emotional condition was correlated with the severity of social anhedonia, whereas the missing rate in the negative emotional condition was correlated with the severity of positive symptoms.

Conclusion

Patients with schizophrenia have a deficit in the executive control of positive emotional information as well as negative emotion, but it may be due to different underlying mechanisms.

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1
Emotional discrimination task and four conditions, the positive congruent, negative congruent, positive incongruent and negative incongruent.
kjsr-15-27-g001
Fig. 2
Interaction among correct response rate, missing rate and response time in different conditions. *: statistically significant p<0.05.
kjsr-15-27-g002
Fig. 3
Pearson correlations of the missing rate with anhedonia scores and PANSS in patients with schizophrenia *: p<0.05, : p<0.01. PANSS : Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale.
kjsr-15-27-g003
Table 1
Demographic and clinical profiles
kjsr-15-27-i001

Values are mean±SD. PANSS : Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, RPM : Raven's progressive matrices

Table 2
Comparison of correct response rate, missing rate and response time between schizophrenia patients and normal controls
kjsr-15-27-i002

Values are mean±SD

Table 3
Pearson correlations between age and education, behavioral data, symptom scales in patients with schizophrenia
kjsr-15-27-i003

*: statistically significant p<0.05, : statistically significant p<0.01. PANSS : Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, RPM : Raven's Progressive Matrices

References

1. Heinrichs RW, Zakzanis KK. Neurocognitive deficit in schizophrenia: a quantitative review of the evidence. Neuropsychology. 1998. 12:426–445.
crossref
2. Milev P, Ho BC, Arndt S, Andreasen NC. Predictive values of neurocognition and negative symptoms on functional outcome in schizophrenia: a longitudinal first-episode study with 7-year follow-up. Am J Psychiatry. 2005. 162:495–506.
crossref
3. Green MF. What are the functional consequences of neurocognitive deficits in schizophrenia? Am J Psychiatry. 1996. 153:321–330.
crossref
4. Benedict RHB, Harris AE, Markow T, McCormick JA, Nuechterlein KH, Asarnow RF. Effects of attention training on information processing in schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull. 1994. 20:537–546.
crossref
5. McGurk S, Twamley E, Sitzer D, McHugo G, Mueser K. A meta-analysis of cognitive remediation in schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry. 2007. 164:1791–1802.
crossref
6. Dickinson D, Tenhula W, Morris S, Brown C, Peer J, Spencer K, et al. A randomized, controlled trial of computer-assisted cognitive remediation for schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry. 2010. 167:170–180.
crossref
7. Strauss GP, Llerena K, Gold JM. Attentional disengagement from emotional stimuli in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res. 2011. 131:219–223.
crossref
8. Sachs G, Winklbaur B, Jagsch R, Lasser I, Kryspin-Exner I, Frommann N, et al. Training of affect recognition (TAR) in schizophrenia-Impact on functional outcome. Schizophr Res. 2012. doi:10.1016/j.schres.2012.03.005.
crossref
9. Cho BH, Ku J, Jang DP, Kim S, Lee YH, Kim IY, et al. The effect of virtual reality cognitive training for attention enhancement. CyberPsychology & Behavior. 2002. 5:129–137.
crossref
10. Posner MI, Petersen SE. The attention system of the human brain. Annu Rev Neurosci. 1990. 13:25–42.
crossref
11. Urbanek C, Neuhaus AH, Opgen-Rhein C, Strathmann S, Wieseke N, Schaub R, et al. Attention network test (ANT) reveals gender-specific alterations of executive function in schizophrenia. Psychiatry Res. 2009. 168:102–109.
crossref
12. Gooding DC, Braun JG, Studer JA. Attentional network task performance in patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders: evidence of a specific deficit. Schizophr Res. 2006. 88:169–178.
crossref
13. Wang K, Fan J, Dong Y, Wang CQ, Lee TM, Posner MI. Selective impairment of attentional networks of orienting and executive control in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res. 2005. 78:235–241.
crossref
14. Peer JE, Rothmann TL, Penrod RD, Penn DL, Spaulding WD. Social cognitive bias and neurocognitive deficit in paranoid symptoms: evidence for an interaction effect and changes during treatment. Schizophr Res. 2004. 71:463–471.
crossref
15. Cohen AS, Leung WW, Saperstein AM, Blanchard JJ. Neuropsychological functioning and social anhedonia: results from a community high-risk study. Schizophr Res. 2006. 85:132–141.
crossref
16. Tully LM, Lincoln SH, Hooker CI. Impaired executive control of emotional information in social anhedonia. Psychiatry Res. 2012. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2011.12.023.
crossref
17. Tallent KA, Gooding DC. Working memory and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance in schizotypic individuals: a replication and extension. Psychiatry Res. 1999. 89:161–170.
crossref
18. Association AP, DSM-IV. APATFo. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-IV-TR. 2000. American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.
19. Kay SR, Flszbein A, Opfer LA. The positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) for schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull. 1987. 13:261–276.
crossref
20. Chapman LJ, Chapman JP, Raulin ML. Scales for physical and social anhedonia. J Abnorm Psychol. 1976. 85:374–382.
crossref
21. Kratzmeier H, Horn R. Manual: Raven-Matrizen-Test, Standard Progressive Matrices. 1979. Weinheim, West Germany: Beltz Test.
22. Lang PJ, Bradley MM, Cuthbert BN. International affective picture system (IAPS): Technical manual and affective ratings. 1999. Gainesville, FL: The Center for Research in Psychophysiology, University of Florida.
23. Park IH, Park HJ, Chun JW, Kim EY, Kim JJ. Dysfunctional modulation of emotional interference in the medial prefrontal cortex in patients with schizophrenia. Neurosci lett. 2008. 440:119–124.
crossref
24. Linden SC, Jackson MC, Subramanian L, Wolf C, Green P, Healy D, et al. Emotion-cognition interactions in schizophrenia: Implicit and explicit effects of facial expression. Neuropsychologia. 2010. 48:997–1002.
crossref
25. Strauss GP, Herbener ES. Patterns of emotional experience in schizophrenia: Differences in emotional response to visual stimuli are associated with clinical presentation and functional outcome. Schizophr Res. 2011. 128:117–123.
crossref
26. Choi SH, Ku J, Han K, Kim E, Kim SI, Park J, et al. Deficits in eye gaze during negative social interactions in patients with schizophrenia. J nerv Ment DIS. 2010. 198:829–835.
crossref
27. Modinos G, Pettersson-Yeo W, Allen P, McGuire PK, Aleman A, Mechelli A. Multivariate pattern classification reveals differential brain activation during emotional processing in individuals with psychosis proneness. Neuroimage. 2012. 59:3033–3041.
crossref
28. Paradiso S, Johnson DL, Andreasen NC, O'Leary DS, Watkins GL, Ponto LLB, et al. Cerebral blood flow changes associated with attribution of emotional valence to pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral visual stimuli in a PET study of normal subjects. Am J Psychiatry. 1999. 156:1618–1629.
crossref
29. Kerns JG, Berenbaum H. Aberrant semantic and affective processing in people at risk for psychosis. J Abnorm Psychol. 2000. 109:728–732.
crossref
30. Hooker CI, Tully LM, Verosky SC, Fisher M, Holland C, Vinogradov S. Can I trust you? Negative affective priming influences social judgments in schizophrenia. J Abnorm Psychol. 2011. 120:98–107.
crossref
31. Breton F, Planté A, Legauffre C, Morel N, Adès J, Gorwood P, et al. The executive control of attention differentiates patients with schizophrenia, their first-degree relatives and healthy controls. Neuropsychologia. 2011. 49:203–208.
crossref
32. Posner MI, Rothbart MK, Vizueta N, Levy KN, Evans DE, Thomas KM, et al. Attentional mechanisms of borderline personality disorder. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002. 99:16366–16370.
crossref
TOOLS
Similar articles