Do Schizophrenics Experience Emotion But Differ In Expression ?

Emotion processing is an interesting area of neuropsychiatry research, especially in schizophrenia. The age-old concept is that schizophrenics are non-emotional personalities; because of the differences in the inner emotional feelings and its outward expressions (Bleuler and Kraepelin). So, there must be some dissociation between the emotional experience and expression. Electronic journal-database search followed by a systematic meta analysis of the recent nuclear imaging studies (Positron Emission Tomography or PET, Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography or SPECT, and fMRI or Functional Magnetic Imaging) studies reflecting schizophrenics also experience emotion alike normal persons but with some deficit of perception and usually with different expression of that perceived emotion. Disorders of limbic system could be the possible reason for such "split" between the emotional perception and expression.