Abstract #1165

Affective Flattening in Schizophrenia Patients: Differential Association with Amygdala Response to Threat-Related Facial Expression Under Automatic and Controlled Processing Conditions. an fMRI Study

Harald Kugel¹, Christian Lindner², Udo Dannlowski²,³, Kirsten Walhfer², Maike Roediger², Birgit Maisch⁴, Jochen Bauer², Patricia Ohrmann², Rebekka Lencer², Pienie Zwitserlood⁵, Anette Kersting⁶, Walter Heindel¹, Volker Arolt², Thomas Suslow⁶

¹Dept. of Clinical Radiology, University of Muenster, Muenster, NRW, Germany; ²Dept. of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Muenster, NRW, Germany; ³Dept. of Psychiatry, University of Marburg, Marburg, HE, Germany; ⁴Klinik am Schlossgarten Duelmen, Duelmen, NRW, Germany; ⁵Dept. of Psychology, University of Muenster, Muenster, NRW, Germany; ⁶Dept. of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, SN, Germany

This fMRI study investigates the role of the amygdala in emotional processing in schizophrenia patients. Previous studies have demonstrated amygdala hypoactivation in patients, but also amygdala hyperactivation with paradigms eliciting automatic affect processing. Furthermore, hyperactivation was related to symptoms of affective flattening, i.e. lack of emotional reactivity. Here amygdala responsivity to threat-related facial expression was studied as function of automatic versus controlled emotion processing. Our findings suggest that amygdala hyperresponsivity to unmasked fearful faces might be a functional marker of schizophrenia, while amygdala hyperresponsivity to masked fearful faces might be a specific characteristic of patients with affective flattening.