The perception of faces and consequent social inferences are fundamental for interpersonal communication. While facial expression is important for interindividual communication, constitutional and acquired features are crucial for basic emotions of attraction or repulsion. An emotional bias in face processing has been shown in schizophrenia, but the neurobiological mechanisms are unclear. Studies on the interaction between face processing and the emotional state of healthy individuals may help to elucidate the pathogenesis of the paranoid syndrome in psychosis. This study addressed facial attractiveness and paranoid ideas in a non-clinical population. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigated neural activation patterns of 99 healthy subjects during the passive perception of a dynamic presentation of faces with different attractiveness. We found that the perceived attractiveness of faces was linked to the activity of face processing and limbic regions including the fusiform gyrus, amygdala, and prefrontal areas. Paranoid beliefs interacted with perceived attractiveness in these regions resulting in a higher response range and increased activation after the presentation of unattractive faces. However, no behavioral interactions between reported subjective attractiveness and paranoid beliefs were found. The results showed that increased activation of limbic brain regions is linked to paranoid beliefs. Since similar correlations were found in clinical populations with paranoid syndromes, we suggest a dimension of emotional dysregulation ranging from subclinical paranoid beliefs to paranoid schizophrenia.

中文翻译：

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亚临床偏执信念和处理过程中没有吸引力的脸部神经反应增强。

面部表情和随之而来的社会推断是人际交流的基础。面部表情对于个人之间的交流很重要，而体质和后天的特征对于吸引或排斥的基本情绪却至关重要。精神分裂症已显示出面部加工过程中的情绪偏见，但神经生物学机制尚不清楚。对面部加工与健康个体的情绪状态之间相互作用的研究可能有助于阐明精神病中偏执综合征的发病机理。这项研究针对非临床人群的面部吸引力和偏执观念。使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI），我们在动态感知具有不同吸引力的面部的被动感知过程中调查了99位健康受试者的神经激活模式。我们发现面孔的吸引力与面孔加工和边缘区域（包括梭状回，杏仁核和前额叶区域）的活动有关。偏执狂的信念与这些区域中的感知吸引力相互作用，导致呈现出没有吸引力的面孔后具有更高的反应范围并增加了激活度。但是，没有发现报告的主观吸引力和偏执狂信念之间的行为相互作用。结果表明，边缘脑区激活的增加与偏执观念有关。由于在偏执综合征的临床人群中发现了相似的相关性，