Schedule of Events | Symposia

Electrophysiology Correlates of Face Recognition in a Population of Individuals with Early Course Psychosis

Poster Session D - Monday, March 31, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Prachi Patel¹ (ppatel44@bidmc.harvard.edu), Nicolas Raymond¹, Emma Oss¹, Willa Molho¹, Brendan Stiltner¹, Chelsea Kiely¹, Paulo Lizano^1,2, Rebekah Trotti^1,2; ¹Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, ²Harvard Medical School

Event-related potentials (ERPs) reveal emotional processing deficits in individuals with psychosis spectrum disorder (PSD). While previous studies have examined alterations in emotional face processing in chronic PSD, deficits in early course psychosis (ECP) remains unexplored. Here, we determine group differences between ECP and healthy controls (HC) in ERP components (P100, N170, P300) during emotional face processing and their associations with social-cognitive symptoms. 48 participants viewed static emotional face stimuli and identified emotions with a button press during EEG recording. EEG data was analyzed to identify significant effects of group and emotion on P100, N170, and P300 amplitude. Spearman correlations assessed for relationships between social-cognitive measures (Social Functioning Scale (SFS), Brief Assessment of Cognition App (BAC App)) and face processing measures (accuracy and component amplitudes). Amplitudes differed between ECP and HC in P100 [F(1,134)=12.01, p=0.001], N170 [F(1,134)=7.93, p=0.006], and P300 [F(1,134)=15.44, p<0.001]. Emotion recognition accuracy was lower in ECP [F(1,130)=19.30, p<0.001]. While no significant correlations were found for ERP amplitude, accuracy significantly correlated with BAC total (r=0.39, p=0.01) and SFS total (r=0.41, p=0.004). Overall differences in P100, N170, and P300 amplitude between groups suggest neurophysiological impairments during face processing in individuals with ECP. Altered ERPs in ECP indicate that emotional facial processing deficits appear early in the phase of psychotic illness. Moreover, these electrophysiological underpinnings could act as potential biomarkers or treatment targeting using non-invasive brain stimulation in ECP.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions