Abstract: Objective To explore the childhood trauma experience and its relation to the eye emotion recognition ability in patients with schizophrenia.Methods Seventy-one schizophrenic patients and fifty-two healthy subjects were assessed with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and the Eye Basic Emotion Discrimination Task (EBEDT).Results The CTQ total score in the patients group was significantly higher than those in the control group (47.86 ± 13.26 vs 34.27 ± 7.27,P < 0.01 ).The subscores in emotional abuse,physical abuse,sexual abuse,emotional neglect and physical neglect of CTQ in the patients group were also significantly higher than those in the control group.(all P< 0.01 ).Compared with controls,the patients had significantly lower total accuracy( (86.74 ± 6.16vs73.42 ± 11.86) %,P < 0.01 ) and longer total reaction time ( (2776.75 ± 703.42 vs 4321.40 ± 1956.83 )ms,P < 0.01 )of EBEDT.The significant difference were also found on the accuracy and reaction time of the EBEDT six basic emotion between the two groups ( all P < 0.01 ).Correlation analysis indicated that CTQ total score were negatively correlated with the EBEDT total accuracy ( r=-0.390,P<0.01 ),and its sub-accuracy of happiness,surprise,sadness,and anger ( respectively r =- 0.419,r =- 0.451,r =- 0.391,r =- 0.344,P < 0.01 ) in the patients group.The correlation between CTQ total score and EBEDT total accuracy was also found in the control group.Conclusion Childhood trauma is related to eye basic emotion recognition in schizophrenia patients,suggesting that the trauma during childhood can affect the social recognition ability.