Emotional anticipation for dynamic emotional faces is not modulated by schizotypal traits: A Representational Momentum study
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Schizotypy, a personality structure that resembles schizophrenia symptoms, is often associated with abnormal facial emotion perception. Based on the prevailing sense of threat in psychotic experiences, and the immediate perceptual history of seeing others’ facial expressions, individuals with high schizotypal traits may exhibit a heightened tendency to anticipate anger. To test this, we used insights from Representational Momentum (RM), a perceptual phenomenon in which the endpoint of a dynamic event is systematically displaced forward, into the immediate future. Angry-to-ambiguous and happy-to-ambiguous avatar faces were presented, each followed by a probe with the same (ambiguous) expression as the endpoint, or one slightly changed to express greater happiness/anger. Participants judged if the probe was “equal” to the endpoint and rated how confident they were. The sample was divided into high ( N = 46) and low ( N = 49) schizotypal traits using the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). First, a forward bias was found in happy-to-ambiguous faces, suggesting emotional anticipation solely for dynamic faces changing towards a potential threat (anger). This may reflect an adaptative mechanism, as it is safer to anticipate any hostility from a conspecific than the opposite. Second, contrary to our hypothesis, high schizotypal traits did not heighten RM for happy-to-ambiguous faces, nor did they lead to overconfidence in biased judgements. This may suggest a typical pattern of emotional anticipation in non-clinical schizotypy, but caution is needed due to the use of self-report questionnaires, university students, and a modest sample size. Future studies should also investigate if the same holds for clinical manifestations of schizophrenia.
Authors: Joana Grave, Sara Cordeiro, Nuno de Sá Teixeira, Sebastian Korb, Sandra Cristina Soares
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,450
Awards: Conscious threat detection in schizophrenia: Exploring the behavioural, neural, and physiological mechanisms underlying the access to visual awareness, G5380104838, Conscious threat detection in schizophrenia: Exploring the behavioural, neural, and physiological mechanisms underlying the access to visual awareness, G8817577162
OpenAlex ID: W4396227487