Increased face detection responses on the mooney faces test in people at clinical high risk for psychosis

Abstract

Identifying state-sensitive measures of perceptual and cognitive processes implicated in psychosis may allow for objective, earlier, and better monitoring of changes in mental status that are predictive of an impending psychotic episode, relative to traditional self-report-based clinical measures. To determine whether a measure of visual perception that has demonstrated sensitivity to the clinical state of schizophrenia in multiple prior studies is sensitive to features of the at-risk mental state, we examined differences between young people identified as being at clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR; n = 37) and non-psychiatric matched controls (n = 29) on the Mooney Faces Test (MFT). On each trial of the MFT, participants report whether they perceive a face in a degraded face image. The CHR group reported perceiving a greater number of faces in both upright and inverted MFT stimuli. Consistent with prior work, males reported more faces on the MFT than females in both conditions. However, the finding of greater reported face perception among CHR subjects was robustly observed in the female CHR group relative to the female control group. Among male CHR participants, greater reported face perception was related to increased perceptual abnormalities. These preliminary results are consistent with a small but growing literature suggesting that heightened perceptual sensitivity may characterize individuals at increased clinical risk for psychosis. Further studies are needed to determine the contributions of specific perceptual, cognitive, and motivational mechanisms to the findings.

Face pareidolia is enhanced by 40 Hz transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) of the face perception network

“…ScZ represents a prime example of perceptual integration impairment, leading to higher rates of pareidolia than in healthy and other psychiatric populations 121 , 128 . Mooney stimuli (comparable to those used in our study) have been used to investigate GBO abnormalities in ScZ 40 , 41 , 129 , 130 . This disturbance suggests abnormal temporal integration of widely distributed brain networks (i.e., the functional disconnection model of ScZ), which stems from developmentally reduced synaptic connectivity and plasticity 131 , 132 .…”

A randomized cross‐over trial investigating the neurocognitive effects of acute exercise on face recognition in children with autism spectrum disorder

“…For example, in Schizophrenia specific social cognition deficits have been related to excessive detection of Mooney faces. In this case, the acute effects of exercise could be interpreted as an ameliorating effect (Silverstein et al, 2021). Lastly, while our findings contribute to a better understanding of the interplay of the exercise‐induced psychophysiological state and face recognition, they cannot inform on long‐term effects.…”

Can you spot a face? Face pareidolia is enhanced by 40 Hz transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation (tACS) of the face perception network

“…For instance, given the impairment of perceptual integration in ScZ patients, they experience higher rates of pareidolia than healthy and other psychiatric populations [114], [122]. Indeed, Mooney stimuli comparable to those used in our study have been used to investigate GBO abnormalities in ScZ [30], [49], [123], [124]. This disturbance in ScZ patients suggests abnormal temporal integration of widely distributed brain networks (i.e., the functional disconnection model of ScZ), which stems from developmentally reduced synaptic connectivity and plasticity [125], [126].…”