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To investigate the influence of visual contextual information on emotion recognition of ambiguous facial expressions in depression and schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Method: Ambiguous facial expressions and emotional contexts representing anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness and surprise were validated in a pre-test with healthy independent raters. Afterwards, 20 healthy participants (8 women, 12 men; mean age 24.35 ± 2.85 years), 20 participants with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (9 women, 11 men; mean age 40.25 ± 11.68 years) and 19 participants with depression (11 women, 8 men; mean age 43.74 ± 12.65 years) rated the emotional content of nine different faces in seven different emotion-suggesting contexts. The proportions of context-congruent answers and differences between emotion ratings in each context were analysed using non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis and explorative, paired Wilcoxon tests. Correlational analyses explored the influence of clinical symptoms assessed by clinician-administered scales. Results: The overall proportion of context-congruent answers did not differ between participants with depression and schizophrenia spectrum disorders compared to healthy participants. Participants with schizophrenia spectrum disorders were more susceptible to anger-suggesting contexts and participants with depression were more susceptible to fear-suggesting contexts. Differences in emotion recognition were associated with the severity of depressive, but not psychotic, symptoms. Conclusion: Despite increased susceptibility to anger-suggesting cues in schizophrenia and to fear-suggesting cues in depression, visual contextual influence remains largely consistent with healthy participants. Preserved emotional responsiveness suggests an efficacy of emotion training but emphasizes the need for additional research focusing on other factors contributing to social interaction deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the influence of external and internal cues on the interpretation of ambiguous facial expressions, and how emotional contexts affect their classification. Topics include the emotion classification of seven ambiguous facial expressions presented on a computer screen in front of different emotional contexts; and how emotional context can affect the classification of ambiguous facial expressions, with participants more frequently classifying emotions of negative valence.

The willingness to cooperate in social interaction often depends on factors such as trustworthiness, reciprocity, and gender, but perhaps also on situational factors such as satiety. Here, we examined Trust Game performance before (fasting condition) and after ingestion of a high-caloric drink (satiety condition) of 37 psychologically healthy male subjects who played the game against individuals of both sexes differing in facial attractiveness. Participants invested significantly fewer money units (MUs) in the fasting condition compared to the satiated condition. Female opposing players received more MUs than males and attractive players more than less attractive ones. Time to arrive at a decision was shorter in the satiated condition than in the fasting condition. These findings indicate that satiety affects social cooperation and suggests that physical needs are prioritized over social cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) have difficulties in empathising with others and show disturbances in social interactions. Using a 'Social Interaction Empathy Task', we found that BPD patients judged neutral and psychologically painful conditions as more painful than healthy subjects. Here, we present the neural correlates underlying these differences in empathy for pain. Methods: Female BPD patients and healthy controls completed the 'Social Interaction Empathy Task' during EEG recording. Event-related potentials (ERP) were analysed for an early anterior component and a late latency positivity. Empathic abilities were assessed using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index and early aversive experiences were measured by the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Results: ERPs in the patient group matched the behaviour results and correlated with the level of personal distress and CTQ. In addition, ERPs of patients were predicted by childhood maltreatment and stress. Conclusions: Taken together, our findings indicate that the observed behavioural differences between patients with BPD and controls might be due to modulatory effects of empathic abilities on the evaluation of pain-related social stimuli, which are supposed to be based on childhood maltreatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frontal EEG asymmetry (FEA) has been studied as both state and trait parameter in emotion regulation and affective disorders. Its significance in borderline personality disorder (BPD) remains largely unknown. Twenty-six BPD patients and 26 healthy controls underwent EEG before and after mood induction using aversive images. A slight but significant shift from left- to right-sided asymmetry over prefrontal electrodes occurred across all subjects. In BPD baseline FEA over F7 and F8 correlated significantly with childhood trauma and functional neurological "conversion" symptoms as assessed by respective questionnaires. Regression analysis revealed a predictive role of both childhood trauma and dissociative neurological symptoms. FEA offers a relatively stable electrophysiological correlate of BPD psychopathology that responds only minimally to acute mood changes. Future studies should address whether this psychophysiological association is universal for trauma- and dissociation-related disorders, and whether it is responsive to psychotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equity, fairness and cooperative behavior are crucial for everyday social interactions. Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is involved in the evaluation of violations of fairness rules, though difficulties remain to determine its role in implementing retaliating or forgiving responses to unfairness. Accordingly, we applied repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to the left and right DLPFC and investigated the impact of the DLPFC on retaliation and selfishness using a sequential neuroeconomic task establishing a role reversal. That is, participants first played an Ultimatum Game (in the role of a recipient) against fair or unfair proposers, followed by a Dictator Game in the role of a proposer. Following inhibition of the right DLPFC, subjects showed an increased punishment rate regarding previously unfair opponents. Surprisingly, previously fair opponents were also treated less fairly after rTMS to the right DLPFC, but not after left or sham rTMS. Previous work suggests that the right DLPFC provides “top-down” cognitive control over prepotent emotional responses to unfairness. Our results indicate, however, that the right DLPFC may be involved in controlling selfish behavior and that its suppression leads to maximization of one’s own benefit, regardless of another’s fairness or unfairness in previous encounters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Up to now, little is known about higher order cognitive abilities like social cognition and social problem solving abilities in alcohol-dependent patients. However, impairments in these domains lead to an increased probability for relapse and are thus highly relevant in treatment contexts.Method: This cross-sectional study assessed distinct aspects of social cognition and social problem solving in 31 hospitalized patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and 30 matched healthy controls (HC). Three ecologically valid scenario-based tests were used to gauge the ability to infer the mental state of story characters in complicated interpersonal situations, the capacity to select the best problem solving strategy among other less optimal alternatives, and the ability to freely generate appropriate strategies to handle difficult interpersonal conflicts. Standardized tests were used to assess executive function, attention, trait empathy, and memory, and correlations were computed between measures of executive function, attention, trait empathy, and tests of social problem solving.Results: AUD patients generated significantly fewer socially sensitive and practically effective solutions for problematic interpersonal situations than the HC group. Furthermore, patients performed significantly worse when asked to select the best alternative among a list of presented alternatives for scenarios containing sarcastic remarks and had significantly more problems to interpret sarcastic remarks in difficult interpersonal situations. Conclusions: These specific patterns of impairments should be considered in treatment programs addressing impaired social skills in individuals with AUD. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Impairments in the mirror neuron system (MNS) have been implicated as a possible underlying neurological basis for deficits in higher-level social cognition in schizophrenia. Previous work testing this hypothesis has used the electroencephalographic mu rhythm as an index of MNS activity, with studies showing mixed results. Here we investigated the role that reward plays in modulating the mu rhythm, and its association with empathy and emotional mental state reasoning. A group of schizophrenia patients and a healthy control group completed an action observation paradigm in which they watched actions that were financially rewarding, punishing, or neutral. Patients showed intact reward-related modulation of the mu rhythm, and greater mu suppression was associated with greater negative symptoms. There was also a trend for reduced mu suppression in patients. Furthermore, both empathy and emotional mental state reasoning were associated with the degree of mu suppression, but only in healthy controls. These findings confirm the association between the mu suppression and high-level social cognition. It is possible that schizophrenia patients utilize different cognitive routes to infer mental states. The demonstration that reward influences the degree of mu suppression in schizophrenia patients may help to account for previous conflicting findings in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction.Early clinical descriptions of and research with people with schizophrenia described apparent difficulties in moral judgement and sensitivity. However, this research failed to take into account the effect of cognitive deficits and symptoms on task performance. Methods.We assessed people with schizophrenia on the Moral Judgement Interview, a task used in the earlier literature, alongside a battery of neuro- and social-cognitive tasks. Results.Whereas people with schizophrenia perform more poorly on this task than controls, this is mediated by memory and declarative theory of mind, and also impacted by negative symptoms. Conclusions.These results indicate that performance deficits on moral judgement tasks are not a universal feature of schizophrenia, but rather due to associated difficulties such as those in social cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Disordered moral behaviour and understanding of moral rules were described early in the literature on schizophrenia; however, moral cognition has received scant attention in spite of a large literature focused on social cognitive impairments and violent behaviour in schizophrenia. Methods. We conducted a narrative synthesis of the literature on violence, moral judgement and schizophrenia. Results. Initial empirical research into moral cognition in schizophrenia did not fully account for the basic- and social-cognitive deficits now known to characterise schizophrenia. Importantly, research into moral cognition in autism and psychopathy, disorders in part characterised by social cognitive impairments indicates subtle patterns of difference to the moral cognition of control participants. Recent neuroeconomic studies of moral cognition in schizophrenia have indicated that individuals with schizophrenia display subtle dysfunction in their fairness-related behaviours, but not in their propensity to engage in altruistic punishment. Conclusions. Further research has the potential to broaden our understanding of what is intact and what is impaired in moral cognition in schizophrenia and also to inform our theories of the structures subserving moral judgement in the general population. Furthermore, a more thorough understanding of moral cognitive impairments in schizophrenia may have implications for both legal process and psychosocial rehabilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses aspects of the concept of life history theory (LHT) as organizing principle of psychiatric disorders. Topics include the correlation of LHT to the differences between species, to physical growth and reproduction, and to the timing of biological maturation. Information regarding the LH strategy concerns for predicting personality disorder.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by interpersonal difficulties, whereby patients are negatively biased concerning the evaluation of others' trustworthiness. Here, we examined the effect of oxytocin on interpersonal behavior of BPD patients in a trust game, emphasizing the assessment of facial attractiveness of the patients' counterparts in the game, and patients' history of childhood trauma. Thirteen BPD patients and thirteen healthy controls played a trust game after receiving oxytocin or placebo in a randomized, double-blind crossover design. Childhood trauma was evaluated using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Patients transferred less money in the oxytocin condition compared to placebo. While healthy controls transferred more money units (MUs) to attractive counterparts than to unattractive ones only after the administration of oxytocin, BPD patients showed this pattern in both conditions. Emotional neglect during childhood negatively correlated with the amount of MUs transferred by patients under oxytocin, but not placebo. Oxytocin had a trust-lowering effect in BPD, which was correlated with patients' history of childhood trauma. Patients' evaluation of interpersonal trust seems to depend more on attractiveness features of their counterparts than in controls, a finding that may have important implications for further research on the usefulness of “prosocial” peptides as an adjunct to psychotherapeutic interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Anxiety is associated with an attentional bias towards angry faces. This effect is most pronounced when the face is presented in the left visual hemifield (LVHF), suggestive of a right hemisphere involvement. Little is known about the modulation of this attentional bias in situations of acute stress. In the current study 38 male participants were randomly allocated to a stress (Trier Social Stress Test; TSST) or a non-stressful control condition. Afterwards they performed an emotional dot-probe paradigm. Stress induced negative affect and a rise in salivary cortisol. Stress caused a pattern of functional asymmetry in the short stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) interval, which was absent in the control group. Stressed participants responded faster to angry faces presented to the LVHF, but responded faster to happy faces presented to the right VHF. This could suggest that stress influences interhemispheric transfer of information that is relevant for emotion processing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introduction. Previous research has suggested that patients with schizophrenia are impaired in appreciating moral values and social norms. Here, we tested the hypothesis-using economic games-that patients with schizophrenia are similar to normals in their ability to recognise unfairness, but perhaps more tolerant towards the acceptance of unfair offers depending on the severity of negative symptoms. Methods. Twenty-five patients with schizophrenia played an Ultimatum Game and a Dictator Game with punishment option to examine their ability to appreciate fairness rules and to reinforce equity in comparison to a healthy control group. Results. As hypothesised, patients accepted significantly more unfair offers than controls. However, rejection rates increased in relation to the unfairness of proposals in both groups. Patients did not differ significantly from controls in the likelihood of punishing unfairness in the Dictator Game or in punishment investment itself. Conclusions. Patients with schizophrenia seem to be less sensitive towards unfairness to their own disadvantage, but punish unfairness at a comparable level to controls, which opposes the common view of a general lack of moral value appreciation in schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Introduction. Delusional disorders are characterised by monothematic, ‘encapsulated’ and incorrigible false beliefs and misinterpretations of social signals. Due to the rarity of cases with ‘pure’ delusional disorder (DD) in clinical settings most studies of social cognition in delusional patients have focused on patients with paranoid schizophrenia. In the present study we sought to examine emotion recognition, theory of mind abilities, and pragmatic language comprehension in patients with delusional disorder. Methods. Social cognition was assessed in 21 patients recruited over a 3-year period who were diagnosed with delusional disorder, paranoid, erotomanic, or jealous type. In addition to an emotion recognition and theory of mind test battery, we included a novel German Proverb Test, which has been found indicative of subtle theory of mind deficits in schizophrenic patients. Executive functioning was assessed using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Psychopathology was measured using the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS). Patients' task performance was compared to a group of 22 healthy control persons paralleled for verbal intelligence, education, and age. Results. Patients with DD made significantly more perseverative errors in the WCST, they performed more poorly on the theory of mind tasks and the proverb test, but were unimpaired in basic emotion recognition abilities relative to controls. When executive functioning was co-varied out, the group differences in theory of mind disappeared, whereas the greater propensity of patients with DD to interpret proverbs literally remained significant. Conclusions. In ‘pure’ DD the basic social cognitive abilities appear to be preserved. Difficulties in metaphorical speech comprehension and executive functioning could, however, indicate more subtle social cognitive deficits in these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of heterochrony in human evolution, defined as evolutionary change in the rate or timing of developmental processes, has been debated controversially among anthropologists. Early researchers suggested a single heterochronic shift towards neoteny, defined as the persistence of embryonic, foetal, or juvenile features of the ancestral species into adulthood of the descendants by slowing of growth and delayed maturation. Neoteny has been considered the hallmark of human evolution, leading to persistent curiosity, playfulness, and emotional attachment. Whereas neoteny-related non-specialisation was assumed to be of adaptive value to cope with different ecological environments, scientists now argue with reference to the thesis of a modular organisation of the mind that the complexity of the social environment forced the emergence of a highly specialised metacognitive capacity, referred to as the social brain hypothesis. This scientific shift also applies to hypotheses on the origin of psychiatric disorders, i.e. a failure of neoteny versus disturbances of social metacognition. This paper discusses the possible relation of heterochronic processes to Fodor's conception of horizontally and vertically organised modules of the mind in respect of its validity for the understanding of psychiatric disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]