Study group: Face processing in schizophrenia

Head: PD Dr. med. Thomas J. Müller, MD

Members:
Dr. med. Helge Horn, MD
Dr. phil. nat. Andrea Federspiel, PhD
Dr. med. Sebastian Walther, MD
Piero Bianchi (doctoral candidate), MD

Deficient processing of faces is a symptom in schizophrenia that leads to problems in social interaction. To gain a better understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms behind this deficit and to develop possible treatment strategies we investigate systematically the sub-processes of face recognition in schizophrenia and healthy controls with a multimodal approach using the following techniques:

• Evoked potentials (ERP) to get precise information about the timing of face processing in schizophrenia
• BOLD-fMRI for spatial localization of face encoding, recognition and attribution functions and specific dysfunctions in schizophrenia
• Arterial spin labeling (ASL) for obtaining information about the absolute CBF of regions involved in face processing
• Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) for getting insight into the connectivity of face processing areas of the human brain in controls and schizophrenia patients
• Voxel based morphometry (VBM) to find possible gray matter atrophy patterns in schizophrenia patients