Altered self-recognition in patients with schizophrenia.
Karl Erik Sandsten, Julie Nordgaard, Troels Wesenberg Kjaer, Vittorio Gallese, Martina Ardizzi, Francesca Ferroni, Janne Petersen, Josef Parnas
Schizophrenia research April 1, 2020 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2020.01.022 via PubMed
Summary
Patients with schizophrenia often report not recognizing themselves in the mirror, a form of self-alienation. Using the Enfacement Illusion, a multisensory paradigm that manipulates self-other facial recognition through visuo-tactile stimulation, this study compared 35 patients with schizophrenia and 35 healthy matched controls. At baseline, patients showed a significant skew toward perceiving another person's face as their own. After both synchronous and asynchronous visuo-tactile stimulation, patients' self-recognition was significantly altered compared to baseline. In contrast, healthy controls only showed altered self-recognition after synchronous stimulation, consistent with prior research. The findings suggest that temporal factors in multisensory integration may contribute to altered self-recognition in schizophrenia.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Case-control study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 70 |
| Population | Patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and healthy matched controls |
| Keywords | Body-illusions Enfacement illusion Multisensory integration Neurophenomenology Schizophrenia |
| Citations | 45 |
| Key finding | Patients with schizophrenia showed a baseline skew toward other-face recognition and altered self-recognition after both synchronous and asynchronous visuo-tactile stimulation, unlike healthy controls who only changed after synchronous stimulation. |
Abstract
Self-alienation is a common characterization of various disturbing experiences in patients with schizophrenia. A vivid example comes from patient reports of not recognizing themselves when inspecting their specular image in the mirror. By applying the multisensory paradigm of the Enfacement Illusion, this study empirically addresses the specular Self-Other discrimination in patients with schizophrenia. 35 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and 35 healthy matched controls were enrolled in the study. Results found that the group of patients with schizophrenia had a significant skewed self-other discrimination towards the other at baseline. Furthermore, the effect of visuo-tactile stimulation on self-recognition in the schizophrenia patients was significantly altered after both synchronous and asynchronous stimulation compared to baseline. This contrasted with healthy controls which in line with earlier studies only had significantly different self-recognition after synchronous stimulation. The study thus suggests that patients with schizophrenia have deviations in their specular self-recognition compared to healthy controls. Moreover, that temporal factors in multisensory integration may contribute to alterations of self-related stimuli in patients with schizophrenia.