European Psychiatry - Volume 33 - March 2016

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S460 24th European Congress of Psychiatry / European Psychiatry 33S (2016) S349–S805
EV350
From clinical cases to clinical
research: Neurocognition and social
cognition in schizophrenia
I. Gurovich , O. Papsuev ∗, A. Shmukler , L. Movina ,
Y. Storozhakova
Moscow Research Institute of Psychiatry, Outpatient Psychiatry and
Organization of Psychiatric Care, Moscow, Russia
∗ Corresponding author.
Introduction Neurocognition and social cognition are the core
deficits influencing social outcomes in patients with schizophre-
nia. These deficits are present in prodromal phase and throughout
the illness, in first-degree relatives and are considered in the frame-
work of neurodevelopmental or neurodegenerative models.
Method Four clinical cases with patients reflecting different
cognitive profiles were chosen to demonstrate heterogeneity of
cognitive biases and their influence on the social function en vivo.
The patients have undergone a number of neurocognitive and social
cognitive measures.
Results In these four patients, we would like to highlight the
dissociation of neurocognitive deficits, clinical manifestations and
social functioning. Social cognitive measures revealed heterogene-
ity of biases in different domains. As a result of our observation,
we can hypothesize that better social functioning was achieved by
patients with better abilities to discriminate negative emotions and
states of mind in others.
Conclusion Despite certain limitations of case-report studies, it
is hard not to point out heterogeneity and incoherence of social
and neurocognition. We assume that intact domains of Process-
ing of Emotions and Theory of Mind predispose to better social
functioning, while it’s hard to trace this connection to neurocogni-
tion. This result needs to be challenged on large samples in future
research, concerning emotionality in Theory of Mind and capacity
for empathy and its’ role in social functioning.
Disclosure of interest The authors have not supplied their decla-
ration of competing interest.
EV351
Emotional processing in panic
disorder and its subtypes: An fMRI
study using the emotional faces
paradigm
T. Pattyn ∗, L. Schmaal , V.D.E. Filip , P. Brenda ,
S. Bernard , V. Dick
1 University of Antwerp, Collaborative Antwerp Psychiatric Research
Institute CAPRI, Antwerp, Belgium
2 Antwerp University Hospital, University Department of Psychiatry,
Antwerpen, Belgium
3 VUmc, Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Amsterdam,
Netherlands
4 Antwerp University Hospital, University Department of Psychiatry,
Antwerp, Belgium
5 VUmc, EMGO Institute of Health and Care Research, Amsterdam,
Netherlands
∗ Corresponding author.
Introduction The literature on the neurobiology of emotional
processing in panic disorder (PD) remains inconsistent. Clinical
heterogeneity could be causing this.
Objective To investigate differences in brain activity between PD
and healthy controls using the emotional faces fMRI paradigm.
Aims To elucidate neurobiological mechanisms underlying emo-
tional processing in PD and previously identified subtypes (Pattyn
et al., 2015).
Methods The main analysis compared the neural processing of
different emotional facial expressions from a large group of PD
patients ( n = 73) versus healthy controls (n = 58) originating from
the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA). A
second analysis divided the PD group into the three previously
identified subgroups: a cognitive-autonomic (n = 22), an autonomic
(n = 16) and an aspecific subgroup (n = 35). The fusiform gyrus,
the anterior cingulate cortex and the insula were used in a ROI
approach.
Results Comparing PD patients with healthy controls, a
decreased activity on angry faces was observed in the left fusiform
gyrus. The subgroup analysis showed more activity in the anterior
cingulate cortex on neutral faces in the cognitive-autonomic
subgroup versus the autonomic subgroup and a decreased activity
in the left fusiform gyrus on angry faces compared to the aspecific
subgroup. Less activity was observed in the right insula on neutral
faces in the autonomic subgroup versus the aspecific subgroup.
Conclusion Reduced activity in the left fusiform gyrus was dif-
ferentiating panic disorder patients from healthy controls. In
accordance with clinical subtyping, between-subtype differences
are an indication that a phenomenological approach could provide
more insight in underlying neurobiological mechanisms in emo-
tional processing in PD.
Disclosure of interest The authors have not supplied their decla-
ration of competing interest.
EV352
The advantage of fear stimuli in
accessing visual awareness
N. Gomes , S. Silva , C. Silva , J. Azevedo ∗, S. Soares
1 Portuguese Catholic University, Institute of Health Sciences, Lisboa,
Portugal
2 University of Aveiro, DETI/IEETA, Aveiro, Portugal
3 Center for Health Technology and Services Research, University of
Aveiro CINTESIS-UA, Department of Education, Aveiro, Portugal
4 Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Psychological Medicine,
Coimbra, Portugal
5 Karolinska Institutet, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Division
for Psychology, Sweden, Sweden
∗ Corresponding author.
Introduction Several studies have shown that evolutionary rele-
vant fear stimuli hold a privileged access to the fear module, an
independent behavioral, psychophysiological and neural system
that is automatically and selectively activated, and is relatively
encapsulated from more advanced human cognition. However,
to the best of our knowledge no study has yet directly assessed
whether such stimuli are granted a facilitated access to visual
awareness, compared to stimuli without such evolutionary rele-
vance.
Objective In the present study we used an interocular suppres-
sion technique, the Continuous Flash Suppression, known to reduce
the activity along the geniculostriate pathway and to strongly sup-
press processing in the visual cortex.
Aim Our goal was to investigate whether ecologically rele-
vant fear stimuli (snakes and spiders) overcame suppression and
accessed awareness to a larger extent than non-evolutionary rele-
vant animal stimuli (birds).
Method Thirty university students volunteered to participate.
Participants were asked to identify the screen quadrant in which
the stimuluswas presented in order to ensure that therewas indeed
a conscious processing.
Results The results confirmed our hypothesis by showing an
advantage of fear stimuli (snakes and spiders) over the control stim-
ulus (birds) in emerging from suppression into awareness, which
was evidenced by significantly shorter response times.
Conclusions Our findings support the notion that evolutionary
relevant stimuli hold a privileged access into awareness, most
likely involving a direct brainstem-thalamic route to the amygdala.