No abstract

Deficits in emotion perception in patients with first episode of psychosis have been reported by many researchers. Till now, training programs have focused mainly in patients with schizophrenia and not in first psychotic episode (FEP) patients. We used a new intervention for facial affect recognition in a group of 35 FEP patients (26 male). The emotion recognition intervention included coloured pictures of individuals expressing six basic emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, surprise, fear) and a neutral emotion. The patients were trained to detect changes in facial features, according to the emotion displayed. A comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests was also administered, measuring attention, memory, working memory, visuospatial ability and executive function by using specific tests of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB). We tried to explore whether cognitive performance can explain the difference noted between the original assessment of emotion recognition and the post-intervention assessment. According to our data, overall cognitive performance did not correlate with post-intervention change in emotion recognition. Specific cognitive domains did not correlate with this change, either. According the above mentioned results, no significant correlation between neuropsychological performance and post-intervention improvement in emotion recognition was noted. This finding may suggest that interventions for emotion recognition may target specific processes that underlie emotion perception and their effect can be independent of general cognitive function.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The relationship between neuropsychological dysfunction and emotion perception has been frequently noted in various studies. Attention, for example, has been found to play an important role in emotion processing and recognition. Not many studies though, have examined this relationship in first psychotic episode patients. The aim of the present study was to explore the nature of the relation between performance in cognitive tests and a test that measures emotion perception. In a sample of 46 first psychotic episode patients (22 male), we administered a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological non-verbal tests and an emotion recognition test. The cognitive domains of attention, memory, working memory, visuospatial ability and executive function were examined, by using specific tests of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB). The emotion recognition assessment comprised a new test that includes 35 coloured pictures of individuals expressing six basic emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, surprise, fear) and a neutral emotion. We used partial correlation–controlling for the effect of age–and we found a statistically significant relationship between emotion recognition and overall cognitive performance. More specifically, attention, visual memory and visuospatial ability positively correlated with emotion recognition. In regard to specific cognitive domains, attention positively correlated with anger and fear, whereas visual memory correlated with happiness and fear. In conclusion, it seems that the role of underlying visual processes in emotion perception has to be further examined and evaluated in this group of patients.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.