Abstract

BUEDO, Paola et al. Processing of Facial Expressions in People with Schizophrenia: Dynamic Analysis of Visual Information. Rev. argent. salud pública [online]. 2018, vol.9, n.34, pp.7-12. ISSN 1852-7513.

INTRODUCTION: People with schizophrenia have deficits in their social performance. Emotional processing explains aspects related to the perception and use of facial emotions for a proper social performance. Ocular movements are an indicator of the cognitive status of a person. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the ocular movements made by a person with schizophrenia when processing a facial emotion, taking into account the social functioning. METHODS: An observational, quantitative and analytical study was conducted, including semi-structured interviews and tests validated in Argentina, as well as eyetracking to 38 people (19 diagnosed with schizophrenia and 19 healthy subjects). All data were analyzed through R statistical program. RESULTS: The analysis of the total duration of fixations per subject and region of interest showed the difficulties people with schizophrenia have to use the places of the face and to interpret emotion. In the assessment of the identification of emotions, people with schizophrenia had the highest number of errors and unanswered items. CONCLUSIONS: When compared to controls, people with schizophrenia use a different and poor strategy of collecting visual information to identify emotional expression, that can be measured and possibly standardized as a method of cognitive assessment.

Keywords : Schizophrenia; Facial Expression; Emotions; Social Behavior; Eye Movements.

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