Face perception in schizophrenia: A specific deficit

Abstract

Introduction. Patients with schizophrenia have a large-scaled and severe cognitive impairment. This study examines whether a well-established deficit in face recognition in schizophrenia is a part of this general cognitive impairment or is specific to faces per se.Method. The differential deficit in matching upright faces as compared with two psychometrically matched control tasks (matching inverted faces and matching none-face objects) was assessed in two well-matched samples of schizophrenics (n = 40) and controls (n = 40).Results. Indicating a generalised cognitive deficit, schizophrenics were impaired in all tasks. Importantly, however, the deficit in matching upright faces was stronger in magnitude (15.6%) than the deficits in matching inverted faces (10.1%) and non-face objects (10.2%). Consistently, schizophrenics showed weaker face inversion effects, indicating a configural processing dysfunction.Conclusion. These results provide compelling evidence for a face-specific deficit in schizophrenia that may be associated with, but separable from, a generalised cognitive impairment. 2016 Taylor & Francis.