• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.211-218
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• 2008

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to compare the ability of facial affect perception among schizophrenia patients, their first degree relatives, and normal control subjects. Methods : Thirty five patients with schizophrenia, 22 first degree relatives, and 34 normal control subjects were recruited in this study. All three groups were matched for age and education levels. The facial affect identification test(FAIT), and neurocognitive test were applied. In the FAIT, the correct response rate, perceived intensity, and sensitivity for 6 kinds of affects were compared among three groups. Results : We found that correct response rate of sadness and anger were decreased in the schizophrenia patients compared with the normal control group. Also the schizophrenia patients showed reduced sensitivity for all six affects compared with the normal control group. The ability of facial affect perception in first degree relatives of schizophrenia patients was decreased but there were not any significant differences compared with normal control group. Conclusion : This study confirmed significantly reduced ability of facial affect perception in schizophrenia patients compared with normal control. Decreased ability of facial affect perception in first degree relatives suggests that affective sensitivity can be influenced by genetic predisposition.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.297-302
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• 2008

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the ability of facial affect perception is associated with schizotypal personality traits in healthy normal controls. Methods : 241 normal subjects were recruited in this study. The age range of all subjects was from 19 to 63 years. The schizotypal personality questionnaire(SPQ) and facial affect identification test(FAIT), which were developed and standardized in Korea, were applied. Subjects from high 1 standard deviation(H group, N=40) and low 1 standard deviation(L group, N=26) on SPQ score were compared. Results : We found that the H group showed significantly reduced ability on the correctness of sadness and neutral compared with the L group. But, no significant association between SPQ and intensity or reaction point was observed in all subjects. Conclusion : This study suggests the individuals with high schizotypal personality trait have impairments on the facial affect identification. Also, these findings may provide the reasonable explanation of social cognition deficit of schizotypal personality disorder.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.347-364
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• 2014

The present study was conducted to investigate how emotional expression change, test delay, and background influence on face recognition. In experiment 1, participants were presented with negative faces at study phase and administered for standard old-new recognition test including targets of negative and neutral expression for the same faces. In experiment 2, participants were studied negative faces and tested by old-new face recognition test with targets of negative and positive faces. In experiment 3, participants were presented with neutral faces at study phase and had to identify the same faces with no regard for negative and neutral expression at face recognition test. In all three experiments, participants were assigned into either immediate test or delay test, and target faces were presented in both white and black background. Results of experiments 1 and 2 indicated higher rates for negative faces than neutral or positive faces. Facial expression consistency enhanced face recognition memory. In experiment 3, the superiority of facial expression consistency were demonstrated by higher rates for neutral faces at recognition test. If facial expressions were consistent across encoding and retrieval, memory performance on face recognition were enhanced in all three experiments. And the effect of facial expression change have different effects on background conditions. The findings suggest that facial expression change make face identification hard, and time and background also affect on face recognition.