Visual exploration of emotional faces in schizophrenia using masks from the Japanese Noh theatre.

Studying eye movements during visual exploration is widely used to investigate visual information processing in schizophrenia. Here, we used masks from the Japanese Noh theatre to study visual exploration behavior during an emotional face recognition task and a brightness evaluation control task using the same stimuli. Eye movements were recorded in 25 patients with schizophrenia and 25 age-matched healthy controls while participants explored seven photos of Japanese Noh masks tilted to seven different angles.

Masked ambiguity - Emotion identification in schizophrenia and major depressive disorder.

Both patients with schizophrenia and with a major depressive disorder (MDD) display deficits in identifying facial expressions of emotion during acute phases of their illness. However, specific deficit patterns have not yet been reliably demonstrated. Tasks that employ emotionally ambiguous stimuli have recently shown distinct deficit patterns in patients with schizophrenia compared to other mental disorders as well as healthy controls.

Benefits of using culturally unfamiliar stimuli in ambiguous emotion identification: A cross-cultural study.

A novel emotion recognition task that employs photos of a Japanese mask representing a highly ambiguous stimulus was evaluated. As non-Asians perceive and/or label emotions differently from Asians, we aimed to identify patterns of task-performance in non-Asian healthy volunteers with a view to future patient studies. The Noh mask test was presented to 42 adult German participants.

[A questionnaire survey on judgment of criminal responsibility].

The authors conducted questionnaire surveys utilizing model cases with the aim of investigating the current views of psychiatrists regarding criminal responsibility judgments in forensic psychiatric evaluations. Six model cases-injury by a person with acute schizophrenia, indecent assault by a person with chronic schizophrenia, attempted murder by a woman with depression, arson by an alcohol abuser, burglary by an amphetamine abuser, rape and indecent assault by a person with personality disorder-were presented to 345 psychiatrists, who were asked about criminal responsibility and appropriate treatment for each of the cases. One hundred eighty-five of the psychiatrists responded.

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

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.