Abstract:

Self-face recognition of patients with schizophrenia has always been a controversial topic. Different opinions exist about whether patients with schizophrenia have the ability of self-face recognition. One theory holds that the ability to recognize one’s own face is impaired in patients with schizophrenia, whereas others assert that the ability to process one’s face is intact. The most recent studies on self-face recognition in patients with schizophrenia are only based on visual self-face recognition. Therefore, in addition to using self-face recognition of a single modality, the audiovisual integration task may become a new way to explore schizophrenics’ self-face recognition.

In the present study, 34 patients with schizophrenia and 26 participants without schizophrenia were assigned to complete a dynamic single-modality self-face recognition task, self-voice recognition task, and audiovisual integration task. Experiment 1 was a 2 (participant type: schizophrenic, participants without schizophrenia) × 3 (face type: self, same gender, opposite gender) within-groups design. Experiment 2 was a 2 (participant type: schizophrenic, participants without schizophrenia) × 3 (voice type: self, same gender, opposite gender) within-groups design. Experiment 3 was a 2 (participant type: schizophrenic, participants without schizophrenia) × 3 (face type: self, same gender, opposite gender) × 3 (voice type: self, same gender, opposite gender) within-groups design, which aimed to explore the influence of participants’ self-face recognition on voice recognition in the audiovisual integration task.

Results showed that: 1) There was no significant difference in self-face recognition between patients with schizophrenia and participants without schizophrenia, and patients with schizophrenia could recognize their faces; 2) In self-voice recognition, there was no significant difference between patients with schizophrenia and participants without schizophrenia, and the ability of self-voice recognition in patients with schizophrenia was better than the voice recognition of others; 3) In the audiovisual integration task, voice recognition in patients with schizophrenia could be influenced by faces. There was no significant difference between patients with schizophrenia and participants without schizophrenia in the ability to recognize their own voices and self-face recognition. However, the ability of patients with schizophrenia to recognize voices of the same gender and opposite gender was not as good as that of participants without schizophrenia. Faces of the same and opposite gender could influence self-voice recognition.

It was found that patients with schizophrenia have the ability of self-face recognition and self-voice recognition. In the audiovisual integration task, faces could affect voice recognition, and self-face recognition could promote self-voice recognition but inhibit the recognition of other voices, including the same and opposite gender’s voices. Thus, using the approach of the audiovisual integration, it could be proved that the ability of self-voice recognition of patients with schizophrenia is intact.

Key words: self-face recognition, self-voice recognition, audio-visual integration, face dominance effect