Anticipatory Emotion in Schizophrenia

Abstract

While people with schizophrenia report experiencing as much emotion in the presence of emotionally evocative stimuli as do people without schizophrenia, evidence suggests that they have deficits in the anticipation of positive emotion. However, little is known about the anticipation of negative emotion in schizophrenia, thus leaving open whether anticipation deficits are more general. We sought to assess anticipation of positive and negative stimuli across multiple methods of measurement. We measured reported experience and emotion modulated startle response in people with (n = 27) and without (n = 27) schizophrenia as they anticipated and subsequently viewed evocative pictures. People with schizophrenia showed an overall dampened response during the anticipation of positive and negative stimuli, suggesting a more general deficit in anticipatory emotional responses. Moreover, anticipatory responses were related to symptoms and functioning in people with schizophrenia. Together, these findings point to important new directions for understanding emotion deficits in schizophrenia.

Keywords: anticipation; blink response; emotion; schizophrenia; startle.

Figure 1

Panel A presents mean blink magnitudes during picture presentation. Panel B presents the mean startle responses during anticipation in individuals with schizophrenia and controls. Panel C presents mean valence ratings during picture presentation in individuals with schizophrenia and controls. Note higher values indicate more pleasant experience. Panel D presents the mean valence ratings during anticipation in individuals with schizophrenia and controls. Note higher values indicate more pleasant experience.