Self-face Recognition In Schizophrenia: Association With Faux Pas Recognition And Executive Function

Objective Self-face recognition is the ability to recognize the own face，which asan indicator of certain aspects of self-awareness, it is the foundation ofself-development. Fundamentally,as an self-obstacles or self-disorder, schizophreniacharacteristically showed the distortion of the consciousness (self-awareness increaseor decrease). In recent years, Self-face recognition task as an indicator ofself-awareness was used for studying self-consciousness of schizophrenia, althoughthere were differences between results. Schizophrenic patients existed defects in theability of Theory of mind and Executive function. but there was no experimentalverification that if there were correlation between the Theory of mind,Executivefunction dysfunction and self-consciousness.This research attempts to assess theability of Self-face recognition in patients with schizophrenia, to explore the Self-facerecognition and its relationship to Faux Pas recognition and executive function inpatients with schizophrenia, clarify the neural mechanisms of Self-face recognition,for providing the indirect evidence in support of the hypothesis that self-awareness isparticipate in theory of mind and executive function processing.Methods.57schizophrenia patients and50age, gender and years ofeducation-matched healthy control subjects were meatured with SFRT,FPT andWCST.(1)In the Self-face Recognition Task(SFRT): frontal view with neutral facialexpression pictures were taken from all subjects,these facial pictures were morphedin proportion with unknown person’s face,which were matched for sex,age. A seriesof morphed pictures were presented to all subjects, the subjects were asked to make anjudegment that was "self" or "not self", subjects responded by pressing the button asfrequently and accurately as possible. The correct percentages and reaction times werecaculated.(2)In the Faux Pas Test(FPT):ten faux pas stories and ten control stories were used for studying, all subjects were asked to detect the faux pas. Recording thetwenty stories scores of all subjects.(3) In the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test(WCST):the computerized WCST version (a total of128cards) was used for recording thescores of test indexes. The difference of Mean between the two groups usingindependent-samples t test, and behavioral correlation between variables usingSpearman correlation analysis.Results (1) SFRT：Schizophrenic patients showed increased reaction time andlower accuracy for self-face recognition compared to normal controls(all P<0.01).(2)FPT：Compared with healthy subjects, schizophrenic patients had significantly lessscore in Faux Pas Test(P<0.05～0.01).(3) WCST：Besides the subscores of categoriescompleted and non-perseverative corrects, there were significantly difference on theeach subscores of WCST between healthy subjects and schizophrenicpatients(P<0.05～0.01).(4) Correlation analysis showed a negative correlationbetween the accuracy for self-face recognition in SFRT and the response administered(r=-0.282, P<0.05), the number of responses errors(r=-0.278, P<0.05), perseverativeresponses(r=-0.397,P<0.01) and non-perseverative errors(r=-0.395, P<0.01) inWCST.Conclusion Schizophreniic patients had general impairments of self-facerecognition, Faux Pas recognition and executive function, and the self-facerecognition deficit may shared a common pathophysiological base with Faux Pas andexecutive dysfunction.