TY - JOUR

T1 - Cognitive versus emotional modulation within a Stroop paradigm in patients with schizophrenia

AU - Romero-Ferreiro, Veronica

AU - Garcia-Gutierrez, Ana

AU - Torio, Iosune

AU - Mari-Beffa, Paloma

AU - Rodriguez-Gomez, Pablo

AU - Perianez, Jose Antonio

AU - Moreno, Eva Maria

AU - Romero, Carmen

AU - Alvarez-Mon, Miguel Angel

AU - Rodriguez-Jimenez, Roberto

PY - 2023/1/18

Y1 - 2023/1/18

N2 - BackgroundSchizophrenia is a complex disorder involving deficits in both cognitive and emotional processes. Specifically, a marked deficit in cognitive control has been found, which seems to increase when dealing with emotional information.AimsWith the aim of exploring the possible common links behind cognitive and emotional deficits, two versions of the emotional Stroop task were administered.MethodIn the cognitive-emotional task, participants had to name the ink colour (while ignoring the meaning) of emotional words. In contrast, the emotional-emotional task consisted of emotional words superimposed on emotional faces, and the participants had to indicate the emotional valence of the faces. Fifty-eight participants (29 in-patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and 29 controls) took part in the study.ResultsPatients and controls showed similar response times in the cognitive-emotional task; however, patients were significantly slower than controls in the emotional-emotional task. This result supports the idea that patients show a more pronounced impairment in conflict modulation with emotional content. Besides, no significant correlations between the tasks and positive or negative symptoms were found. This would indicate that deficits are relatively independent of the clinical status of patients. However, a significant correlation between the emotional-emotional task and cognitive symptoms was found.ConclusionsThese findings suggest a restricted capacity of patients with schizophrenia to deal with the attentional demands arising from emotional stimuli.

AB - BackgroundSchizophrenia is a complex disorder involving deficits in both cognitive and emotional processes. Specifically, a marked deficit in cognitive control has been found, which seems to increase when dealing with emotional information.AimsWith the aim of exploring the possible common links behind cognitive and emotional deficits, two versions of the emotional Stroop task were administered.MethodIn the cognitive-emotional task, participants had to name the ink colour (while ignoring the meaning) of emotional words. In contrast, the emotional-emotional task consisted of emotional words superimposed on emotional faces, and the participants had to indicate the emotional valence of the faces. Fifty-eight participants (29 in-patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and 29 controls) took part in the study.ResultsPatients and controls showed similar response times in the cognitive-emotional task; however, patients were significantly slower than controls in the emotional-emotional task. This result supports the idea that patients show a more pronounced impairment in conflict modulation with emotional content. Besides, no significant correlations between the tasks and positive or negative symptoms were found. This would indicate that deficits are relatively independent of the clinical status of patients. However, a significant correlation between the emotional-emotional task and cognitive symptoms was found.ConclusionsThese findings suggest a restricted capacity of patients with schizophrenia to deal with the attentional demands arising from emotional stimuli.

KW - schizofrenia

KW - Cognitive Control

KW - conflict modulation

KW - Stroop task

KW - Emotion

U2 - 10.1192/bjo.2022.614

DO - 10.1192/bjo.2022.614

M3 - Article

VL - 9

JO - British Journal of Psychology

JF - British Journal of Psychology

SN - 0007-1269

IS - 1

M1 - e19

ER -