Emotion perception in schizophrenia: an eye movement study comparing the effectiveness of risperidone vs. haloperidol

Williams, Leanne M.; Loughland, Carmel M.; Green, Melissa J.; Harris, Anthony W.F.; Gordon, Evian

doi:10.1016/S0165-1781(03)00166-5

« Previous Next »Psychiatry Research
Volume 120, Issue 1 , Pages 13-27, 30 August 2003

Emotion perception in schizophrenia: an eye movement study comparing the effectiveness of risperidone vs. haloperidol

Leanne M. Williams
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
- The Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW 2145, Australia
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +61-2-9845-6688; fax: +61-2-9845-7734
Carmel M. Loughland
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
- Neuroscience Institute of Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders (NISAD), Centre for Mental Health Studies, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia
Melissa J. Green
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Anthony W.F. Harris
- The Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW 2145, Australia
- Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Evian Gordon
- The Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW 2145, Australia
- Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

Received 26 July 2002; received in revised form 3 April 2003; accepted 13 June 2003.

Abstract

We used a psychophysiological marker of visual attention (the visual scanpath) to investigate the effects of atypical (risperidone) vs. typical (haloperidol) antipsychotic medication on facial emotion perception in schizophrenia (n=28) and healthy control (n=28) groups. Of the schizophrenia subjects, 15 were prescribed risperidone. Visual scanpaths to ‘happy’, ‘sad’ and ‘neutral’ faces were recorded using video-oculography, and concurrent emotion-recognition accuracy was assessed using multiple-option tasks. Compared to control subjects, both schizophrenia subgroups showed a restriction in visual scanning (reduced total fixation number and decreased scanpath length). Haloperidol-treated schizophrenia subjects exhibited an additional and consistent pattern of reduced attention (fixation) to salient features for neutral and happy. By contrast, risperidone-treated subjects showed a relatively greater attention to salient features for these expressions, in which they did not differ from controls. Recognition accuracy for happy and neutral showed a similar lack of impairment. These findings suggest that risperidone may play a specific role in schizophrenia in the ability to attend to salient features, and to integrate this information into an accurate percept for neutral and positive expressions in particular.

Keywords: Schizophrenia, Risperidone, Haloperidol, Facial emotion, Visual scanpath, Eye movements