Functional activation abnormalities during facial emotion perception in schizophrenia patients and nonpsychotic relatives

article i nfo Background:Deficits in facial emotion perception in schizophrenia may be a marker of disorder liability. Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies investigating these deficits have been limited by task de- mands that may recruit other impaired cognitive processes in schizophrenia. Methods: We used a family study design along with a passive viewing task during fMRI to investigate brain acti- vation abnormalities underlying facial emotion perception in schizophrenia and examine whether such abnor- malities are associated with the genetic liability to the disorder. Twenty-eight schizophrenia patients, 27 nonpsychotic relatives, and 27 community controls passively viewed images of facial emotions during an fMRI scan. Results: Analyses revealed hypoactivation in face processing areas for both patients and relatives compared to controls, and hyperactivation in relatives compared to both patients and controls for frontal regions implicated in emotion processing. Conclusions: Results suggest that activation abnormalities during facial emotion perception are manifestations of thegeneticliabilitytoschizophrenia,andmaybe accompaniedbycompensatorymechanismsinrelatives.Study- ing mechanisms in nonpsychotic relatives is a valuable way to examine effects of the unexpressed genetic liabil- ity to schizophrenia on the brain and behaviour.