Prospective and concurrent correlates of emotion perception in psychotic disorders: A naturalistic, longitudinal study of neurocognition, affective blunting and avolition

This naturalistic study investigated longitudinal and cross-sectional symptomatic and neurocognitive correlates of social cognition indexed by emotion perception. Participants were 31 persons admitted to a psychiatric emergency ward due to acute psychosis. Positive and negative (i.e., affective blunting and avolition) symptoms were assessed at baseline and 12-month follow-up using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. Participants completed neuropsychological assessments with alternative versions of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status at baseline and at 12-month follow-up. Emotion perception was measured using the Face/Voice Emotion Test at 12-month follow-up. Correlational analyses (Spearman's rho) revealed strong and statistically significant associations between neurocognition and emotion perception (baseline r=0.58, follow-up r=0.43). Associations between positive symptoms and emotion perception were weak or non-existent (baseline r=0.13, follow-up r = 0.01). Emotion perception was moderately, but not significantly, associated with affective blunting at follow-up (r=0.33), but not at baseline (r=0.21). The association with avolition was non-existent (baseline r = 0.05, follow-up r=0.01). This study supports the notion that emotion perception has neurocognitive correlates. The cross-sectional trend level association with affective blunting suggests that the ability to perceive emotions might be related to, but dissociable from the ability to express emotions.