Automatic affective processing impairments in patients with deficit syndrome schizophrenia

Affective impairments were examined in patients with and without deficit syndrome schizophrenia. Two Emotional Stroop tasks designed to measure automatic processing of emotional information were administered to deficit (n = 15) and non-deficit syndrome (n = 26) schizophrenia patients classified according to the Schedule for the Deficit Syndrome, and matched non-patient control subjects (n = 22). In comparison to non-deficit patients and controls, deficit syndrome patients demonstrated a lack of attention bias for positive information, and an elevated attentional lingering effect for negative information. These findings suggest that positive information fails to automatically capture attention of deficit syndrome patients, and that when negative information captures attention, it produces difficulty in disengagement Attentional abnormalities were significantly correlated with negative symptoms, such that more severe symptoms were associated with less attention bias for positive emotion and a greater lingering effect for negative information. Results are generally consistent with a mood-congruent processing abnormality and suggest that impaired automatic processing may be core to diminished emotional experience symptoms exhibited in deficit syndrome patients.