DISTURBANCES OF AFFECTIVE PROSODY IN PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA - A CROSSSECTIONAL STUDY

The objective was to determine whether disturbances of affective proso dy constitute part of the symptomatology of schizophrenia. Affective p rosody is defined here as a neuropsychological function that encompass es all non-verbal aspects of language that are necessary for recognisi ng and conveying emotions in communication. Twenty six schizophrenic o utpatients and twenty four normal controls underwent a standardised pr osody test, assessing four different aspects of affective prosody: spo ntaneous prosody, prosodic recognition, prosodic repetition, and facia l affect recognition. Patients scored significantly worse than control s on three of the four subtests: spontaneous prosody, prosodic recogni tion, and prosodic repetition. There were no significant differences o n a subtest for facial affect recognition. Differences in educational level between patients and controls could not account for these differ ences.