Deficits of subliminal self-face processing in schizophrenia

Abstract Most studies show that self-processing in schizophrenia is impaired at the supraliminal level. Schizophrenic patients generally lack the ability to prioritize the processing of self-related information, such as their own face. However, some evidence suggests that schizophrenic patients may retain intact subliminal processing abilities even though their conscious experiences are compromised. We conducted the first study exploring schizophrenic patients’ subliminal self-face processing. Using a breaking continuous flash suppression (bCFS) paradigm, we interocularly suppressed face images (self, famous, and unknown faces). Participants’ reaction times to detect the faces when they broke the suppression were recorded as an index for the subliminal processing of faces. Unlike the healthy controls, schizophrenic patients did not demonstrate a processing advantage for their own face when it broke interocular suppression; only a face familiarity effect was found. These findings contribute to the understanding of self-processing deficits in schizophrenia.