Opposite sides of different coins: near-diametrical opposition of physiological indices of reduced accuracy of face emotion recognition in schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders
Simultaneous eye-tracking and EEG reveal physiological differences in emotion recognition between schizophrenia and autism.
Key Points
This study investigates the physiological mechanisms underlying reduced accuracy of face emotion recognition in schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder.
Conducted simultaneous eye-tracking and continuous EEG data collection from 23 adults with schizophrenia, 21 autistic adults, and 24 neurotypical controls.
Calculated event-related potentials (ERP) using time- and time-frequency approaches to analyze EEG data.
Rated symptoms using PANSS for schizophrenia and ADOS-2 for autism diagnostic assessments.
Both schizophrenia and autism were associated with reduced face emotion recognition accuracy compared to neurotypical controls.
In schizophrenia, reduced accuracy correlated with decreased initial sensory responses in the theta band, while autism showed increased alpha-frequency event-related desynchronization.
The combined physiological and eye-tracking measures differentiated schizophrenia and autism with over 90% accuracy.