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TY - THES AU - Knobloch, Simon TI - Empathy in schizophrenia: neural alterations during emotion recognition and affective sharing PB - Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen VL - Dissertation CY - Aachen M1 - RWTH-2025-04832 SP - 1 Online-Ressource : Illustrationen PY - 2025 N1 - Veröffentlicht auf dem Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University N1 - Dissertation, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, 2025 AB - Introduction: Deficits in emotion recognition and processing are characteristic for patients with schizophrenia [SCZ]. Methods: We targeted both emotion recognition and affective sharing, one in static and one in dynamic facial stimuli, during functional magnetic resonance imaging [fMRI] in 22 SCZ patients and 22 matched healthy controls [HC]. Current symptomatology and cognitive deficits were assessed as potential influencing factors. Results: Behaviorally, patients only showed a prolonged response time in age-discrimination trials. For emotion-processing trials, patients showed a difference in neural response, without an observable behavioral correlate. During emotion and age recognition in static stimuli, a reduced activation of the bilateral anterior cingulate cortex [ACC] and the right anterior insula [AI] emerged. In the affective sharing task, patients showed a reduced activation in the left and right caudate nucleus, right AI and inferior frontal gyrus [IFG], right cerebellum, and left thalamus, key areas of empathy. Discussion: We conclude that patients have deficits in complex visual information processing regardless of emotional content on a behavioral level and that these deficits coincide with aberrant neural activation patterns in emotion processing networks. The right AI as an integrator of these networks plays a key role in these aberrant neural activation patterns and, thus, is a promising candidate area for neurofeedback approaches. LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)11 DO - DOI:10.18154/RWTH-2025-04832 UR - https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/record/1012049 ER -