Recognition of affect in facial expression using the Noh Mask Test: Comparison of individuals with schizophrenia and normal controls

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to compare facial expression recognition in individuals with schizophrenia and normal controls using the Noh Mask Test. Fifteen men with schizophrenia and 15 normal controls were presented with a photograph of a Noh mask rotated either upward or downward from the neutral front-facing position, and an emotion label, and were requested to judge whether the expression of the mask was congruent with the indicated emotion. Using multidimensional scaling, the facial expression of the Noh mask recognized by the patients and the healthy controls was analyzed in 3-D: (i) Rejection-Attention; (ii) Pleasant-Unpleasant; and (iii) Awakening-Relaxation. Individuals with schizophrenia had difficulty recognizing that others had intentions of harming them. The Noh Mask Test was found to be useful in discriminating between individuals with schizophrenia and controls in the recognition of facial expression (discriminant ratio: 99.9%).

Masked ambiguity – Emotion identification in schizophrenia and major depressive disorder

“…All computer-assisted tasks were presented on a notebook using the program Inquisit 4 (http://www.millisecond.com/). First, color photographs of a painted wooden female mask were presented to participants (Minoshita et al, 2005; see Supplement 1 for examples). The photos showed the mask in nine different inclination angles, eight tilted in angular degrees of 10 (10°−40°) up (u)-and downwards (d) on the vertical line as well as one photo showing a full-frontal view of the mask.…”

“…Making use of differences in lighting and flipping angle (Kawai et al, 2013), the mask displays changing emotional expressions, thus creating ambiguity (Miyata et al, 2012). On this task, Japanese patients with schizophrenia showed an emotion identification pattern different from that of healthy controls, including a reduced sensitivity to negative emotions (Minoshita et al, 2005). As the Noh mask represents a single non-human object, the stimulus material is homogeneous and biases due to subjective feelings toward the face models are reduced (Yrizarry et al, 1998).…”

Cross-Cultural Aspects of Social Cognitive Abilities in Schizophrenia

“…In two previous studies, Minoshita et al (1997; validated the task in healthy controls. Patients with schizophrenia identified emotions with less variety than healthy con trols, had less sensitivity for negative emotions, and were less sensitive toward uncanny emotional expressions (Minoshita et al, 2005). This pattern was not observed in depressed patients, who, in contrast, responded faster to calm expressions (Minoshita et al; personal communication).…”

Shadows Alter Facial Expressions of Noh Masks

“…Minoshita et al [6] analyzed large numbers of emotions and found that, for example, downward tilted Noh masks were recognized as happier, more composed, and less surprised, than upward tilted masks (see also [7], [8]). Nishimura et al [4] used images of either the Noh mask alone, or the mask together with the body, and revealed that pictures with small downward inclinations were recognized as sadder, while those with larger downward inclinations as happier.…”