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Increased fusiform area activation in schizophrenia during processing of spatial frequency-degraded faces, as revealed by fMRI

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2009

S. M. Silverstein ,
S. D. All ,
R. Kasi ,
S. Berten ,
B. Essex ,
K. L. Lathrop  and
D. M. Little
S. M. Silverstein*
Affiliation:
University Behavioral HealthCare and Department of Psychiatry, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, USA Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
S. D. All
Affiliation:
University Behavioral HealthCare and Department of Psychiatry, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, USA Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
R. Kasi
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
S. Berten
Affiliation:
University Behavioral HealthCare and Department of Psychiatry, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, USA Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
B. Essex
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
K. L. Lathrop
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
D. M. Little
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
*
*Address for correspondence: Dr S. M. Silverstein, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, 151 Centennial Avenue, Piscataway, NJ08854, USA. (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Background

People with schizophrenia demonstrate perceptual organization impairments, and these are thought to contribute to their face processing difficulties.

Method

We examined the neural substrates of emotionally neutral face processing in schizophrenia by investigating neural activity under three stimulus conditions: faces characterized by the full spectrum of spatial frequencies, faces with low spatial frequency information removed [high spatial frequency (HSF) condition], and faces with high spatial frequency information removed [low spatial frequency (LSF) condition]. Face perception in the HSF condition is more reliant on local feature processing whereas perception in the LSF condition requires greater reliance on global form processing. Past studies of perceptual organization in schizophrenia indicate that patients perform relatively more poorly with degraded stimuli but also that, when global information is absent, patients may perform better than controls because of their relatively increased ability to initially process individual features. Therefore, we hypothesized that people with schizophrenia (n=14) would demonstrate greater face processing difficulties than controls (n=13) in the LSF condition, whereas they would demonstrate a smaller difference or superior performance in the HSF condition.

Results

In a gender-discrimination task, behavioral data indicated high levels of accuracy for both groups, with a trend toward an interaction involving higher patient performance in the HSF condition and poorer patient performance in the LSF condition. Patients demonstrated greater activity in the fusiform gyrus compared to controls in both degraded conditions.

Conclusions

These data suggest that impairments in basic integration abilities may be compensated for by relatively increased activity in this region.

Keywords

Cognitionface processingfMRIperceptionschizophrenia
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 40 , Issue 7 , July 2010 , pp. 1159 - 1169
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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