No evidence for mirror system dysfunction in schizophrenia from a multimodal TMS/EEG study

Introduction. Social cognition refers to how people conceive, perceive, and draw inferences about mental and emotional states of others in the social world. Previous studies suggest that the concept of social cognition involves several abilities, including those related to affect and cognition. The present study analyses the deficits of individuals with schizophrenia in two areas of social cognition: Theory of Mind (ToM) and emotion recognition and processing. Examining the impairment of these abilities in patients with schizophrenia has the potential to elucidate the neurophysiological regions involved in social cognition and may also have the potential to aid rehabilitation. Methods. Two experiments were conducted. Both included the same five tasks: first- and second-level false-belief ToM tasks, emotion inferencing, understanding of irony, and matrix reasoning (a WAIS-R subtest). The matrix reasoning task was administered to evaluate and control for the association of the other tasks with analytic reasoning skills. Experiment 1 involved factor analysis of the task performance of 75 healthy participants. Experiment 2 compared 30 patients with schizophrenia to an equal number of matched controls. Results. (1) The five tasks were clearly divided into two factors corresponding to the two areas of social cognition, ToM and emotion recognition and processing. (2) Schizophrenics’ performance was impaired on all tasks, particularly on those loading heavily on the analytic component (matrix reasoning and second-order ToM). (3) Matrix reasoning, second-level ToM (ToM2), and irony were found to distinguish patients from controls, even when all other tasks that revealed significant impairment in the patients’ performance were taken into account. Conclusions. The two areas of social cognition examined are related to distinct factors. The mechanism for answering ToM questions (especially ToM2) depends on analytic reasoning capabilities, but the difficulties they present to individuals with schizophrenia are due to other components as well. The impairment in social cognition in schizophrenia stems from deficiencies in several mechanisms, including the ability to think analytically and to process emotion information and cues.

Impairments in social cognitions in schizophrenia are increasingly reported in the last decade but only a few studies have come from Asia. The objective of the study was to evaluated emotion perception, theory of mind and social knowledge in people with schizophrenia compared to healthy controls. Participants were 36 clinically stable outpatients with schizophrenia and 36 normal controls with comparable age and level of education. We administered general neurocognition test (the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination), emotion perception (the Faces Test), theory of mind (the Eyes Test) and social knowledge (the Situational Features Recognition Test; SFRT). Schizophrenia patients displayed obvious impairment in all three social cognition domains i.e. the Faces Test [13.7 (2.9) vs 15.7 (1.9), P=0.001], the Eyes Test [18.9 (4.4) vs 23.5 (4.4), P<0.001] and SFRT [0.85 (0.09) vs 0.9 (0.05), P=0.002]. The performances on three social cognition tests did not correlate with positive symptoms. Only the Faces Test seemed to be related to negative symptoms. The results demonstrated that there are deficits of social cognitions in schizophrenia even in a clinically stable population.

Factor structure of social cognition in schizophrenia: Investigation of four core domains.

AimSocial cognition impacts social functioning in schizophrenia; however, little is known about how patients with schizophrenia themselves perceive social cognition. This study, using an internet survey, aimed to investigate their knowledge of social cognition, clinical experiences related to social cognition, awareness of social cognition's role in one's social life, and the relationships between subjective difficulties with social cognition and social functioning.MethodsData from 232 outpatients with schizophrenia (SZ) and 494 healthy controls (HC) were obtained through an internet survey and were weighted according to the demographics of the national population. A newly developed survey questionnaire on knowledge, experience, and awareness of social cognition was administered. Subjective difficulties were evaluated using the Self‐Assessment of Social Cognition Impairments and the Observable Social Cognition Rating Scale.ResultsLess than a quarter of both groups were familiar with the term or concept of social cognition. Less than 5% of both groups had experienced being assessed or treated for social cognition. More than half of both groups were aware of the relationship between social cognition and social functioning. The SZ group had higher levels of subjective difficulties than the HC group across all social cognitive domains. The attributional bias domain of subjective difficulties was negatively associated with social functioning.ConclusionPatients with schizophrenia had substantial subjective difficulties in social cognition, which they perceived as being related to social functioning. However, their knowledge of social cognition was limited, and the assessment and treatment might not be widespread in regular clinical practice.

Event Abstract Back to Event A pilot study: Investigating the neural correlates of social cognition in neuropsychiatric disorders using fMRI Charlotte Knee-Zaska1*, Omar Mothersill1 and Gary Donohoe1 1 NUI Galway, Psychology, Ireland Social cognition can be defined as mental processes allowing people to perceive and process information about themselves and others, enabling successful navigation of the social world (Van Overwalle, 2009). Social cognitive defects (such as emotion recognition and mental state reasoning, or ‘theory of mind’) are a core feature of several psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia (Couture et al., 2006) and strongly predict functional outcome (Fett et al., 2011). For this reason social cognition is a potential target for new pharmacological and/or cognitive treatments. A better understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms involved are a critcal step towards this. The present study aims to elucidate these mechanisms using functional MRI across a sample of psychosis patients (N = 30) and demographically-matched healthy controls (N = 30). Three robust social cognitive tasks will be used during fMRI, including (1) emotion recognition, where participants observe video clips of angry or neutral facial expressions (Grosbras and Paus, 2006), (2) theory of mind, where participants view cartoons and contemplate the mental states of the characters (Brüne et al., 2008) and (3) social exclusion, where participants experience social exclusion from a computer ball game (Sebastian et al., 2011).This study will also examine effects of putative risk factors for psychosis, including effects of genome-wide associated genetic risk variants (Ripke et al., 2011) and environmental factors. Using a single healthy volunteer, this pilot fMRI study highlighted several brain regions that were activated during each of these social cognitive tasks at a p<0.05 level, including corticolimbic and default mode networks, consistent with previous social neuroimaging studies. References Van Overwalle, F. (2009). Social cognition and the brain: a meta‐analysis.Human brain mapping, 30(3), 829-858. Couture, S. M., Penn, D. L., & Roberts, D. L. (2006). The functional significance of social cognition in schizophrenia: a review. Schizophrenia bulletin, 32(suppl 1), S44-S63. Fett, A. K. J., Viechtbauer, W., Dominguez, M. D. G., Penn, D. L., van Os, J., & Krabbendam, L. (2011). The relationship between neurocognition and social cognition with functional outcomes in schizophrenia: a meta-analysis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 35(3), 573-588. Grosbras, M. H., & Paus, T. (2006). Brain networks involved in viewing angry hands or faces. Cerebral Cortex, 16(8), 1087-1096. Brüne, M., Lissek, S., Fuchs, N., Witthaus, H., Peters, S., Nicolas, V., ... & Tegenthoff, M. (2008). An fMRI study of theory of mind in schizophrenic patients with “passivity” symptoms. Neuropsychologia, 46(7), 1992-2001. Sebastian, C. L., Tan, G. C., Roiser, J. P., Viding, E., Dumontheil, I., & Blakemore, S. J. (2011). Developmental influences on the neural bases of responses to social rejection: implications of social neuroscience for education. Neuroimage, 57(3), 686-694. Keywords: social cognition, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Schizophrenia, theory of mind (ToM), Emotion recogntion, social exclusion Conference: Neuroscience Ireland Young Neuroscientists Symposium 2014 , Dublin, Ireland, 20 Sep - 20 Sep, 2014. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Early Career Neuroscience Citation: Knee-Zaska C, Mothersill O and Donohoe G (2014). A pilot study: Investigating the neural correlates of social cognition in neuropsychiatric disorders using fMRI . Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Neuroscience Ireland Young Neuroscientists Symposium 2014 . doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2014.87.00020 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 12 Sep 2014; Published Online: 12 Sep 2014. * Correspondence: Mrs. Charlotte Knee-Zaska, NUI Galway, Psychology, Galway, Ireland, kneec@tcd.ie Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Charlotte Knee-Zaska Omar Mothersill Gary Donohoe Google Charlotte Knee-Zaska Omar Mothersill Gary Donohoe Google Scholar Charlotte Knee-Zaska Omar Mothersill Gary Donohoe PubMed Charlotte Knee-Zaska Omar Mothersill Gary Donohoe Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Emotion recognition and theory of mind are related to gray matter volume of the prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia

Investigating the state-like and trait-like characters of social cognition in schizophrenia: A short term follow-up study

From “under” to “over” social cognition in schizophrenia: Is there distinct profiles of impairments according to negative and positive symptoms?

This study investigates the relationship between semantic memory and social cognition in schizophrenia. The sample included 50 individuals with schizophrenia (mean age 42.54, SD 9.98; 14 women, 36 men) and 30 controls (mean age 42.06, SD 12.50; 6 women, 24 men). Semantic memory was assessed using verbal fluency and the Camel and Cactus Test, while social cognition was evaluated through the Face Test and the Hinting Task. The schizophrenia group showed significantly lower performance in both semantic memory (semantic fluency: t(78) = 7.77, p &lt; 0.007, δ = 1.79; Camel and Cactus Test: t(78) = 5.37, p &lt; 0.007, δ = 1.26) and social cognition (Face Test: t(78) = 5.94, p &lt; 0.007, δ = 1.34; Hinting Task: t(78) = 7.79, p &lt; 0.007, δ = 1.79). Strong correlations were observed between the Camel and Cactus Test and social cognition measures (Face Test: r = 0.63, p &lt; 0.005; Hinting Task: r = 0.54, p &lt; 0.005). Regression analyses indicated that the Camel and Cactus Test significantly predicted social cognition performance independent of symptomatology, explaining 53% of the variance in the Face Test and 54% in the Hinting Task. This study provides new insights into the cognitive underpinnings of schizophrenia, emphasizing the need for further research to explore these relationships and their implications for cognitive models and therapeutic interventions.

The goal of this study was to assess facial affect recognition abilities in subjects with various schizophrenia subtypes and subjects with major depression. A total of six disorganized, 21 paranoid and 18 residual subjects with schizophrenia (DSM-IV criteria) were compared with 21 subjects with major depression (DSM-IV criteria) and 30 matched healthy control subjects. Two experimental tasks requiring the sorting and rating of emotional facial expressions were applied. Disorganized and paranoid subjects showed strong impairments in the sorting of emotional facial expressions. Depressive subjects displayed only minor deficits, and residual subjects were unimpaired. Subjects with disorganized schizophrenia rated emotional facial expressions as more aroused, and depressive subjects rated them as less aroused, than the other study groups. Our study demonstrates strong deficits in facial affect recognition in subjects with schizophrenia and pronounced disorganized or psychotic symptoms. Deficits in facial affect recognition are specific to schizophrenia. They may be considered as a state marker of schizophrenia.

External validity of the Social Cognition Rating Tools in Indian Setting

Emotion recognition, ‘theory of mind,’ and social behavior in schizophrenia

Interventions for the treatment of theory of mind deficits in schizophrenia: Systematic literature review

Social cognition represents a fundamental skill for effective social behavior. It is nowadays widely accepted that individuals suffering from serious mental illness are impaired in this domain. Studies published since June 2012 have been reviewed, with a particular focus on theory of mind, social perception, social knowledge, attributional bias, and emotion processing in patients suffering from schizophrenia and mood disorders. The reviewed literature supports previous studies on deficits in social cognition in schizophrenia, major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder, and underscores their relevance in the psychosocial context.

Watch your favorite athlete take a shot for the goal, or your favorite actor lean in for a kiss, and chances are that some of the same neurons that would be active if you were performing that action are firing as well. These mirror neurons – neurons in premotor and parietal cortex that fire both when an animal performs a goal-directed action and when observing such actions – provide a link between representations of the other and selfrepresentations (di Pellegrino et al., 1992). Along with their proximity to Broca’s area, this has led to the suggestion that the mirror system is fundamental for the development of language and complex social-cognitive constructs including empathy and theory of mind (Iacoboni & Dapretto, 2006). But how does the mirror system acquire its reflective properties? Are the patterns it shows in response to observing a particular movement pre-set by evolution, or the product of experience? In this issue, Catmur et al. address this question by using fMRI to assess activation patterns within the mirror system after sensorimotor training. They first trained participants to either flex their hand when they saw a picture of a flexed hand and flex their foot in response to the picture of a flexed foot (Compatible condition), or to reverse their responses (Incompatible condition; flex hand in response to foot picture and vice versa). Following training, participants were scanned while simply observing pictures of flexed hands or feet, while themselves remaining stationary. The results show that the mirror system can be trained: Areas that showed greater activity to hand-action displays for the Compatible group showed greater reactivity to foot-action displays in the Incompatible group. Both groups showed stronger activations for the stimuli that predicted performance of the hand action, suggesting some pre-existing bias towards the representation of such actions. However, the critical finding is that the mirror system’s mapping to which stimuli predicted such movements was flexible, showing a complete reversal after only 3 days of training. It appears that the representations linking others’ actions and our own within the mirror system are not hardwired, but instead are easily changed. Is the mirroring system truly unique, or more properly seen as a special case of experience-based associations? Is the urge to make a kick while watching a player do so during a televised game that different from ‘feeling it in your bones’ when you visit the soccer field you frequented in your youth? The results of Catmur et al. suggest that it may not be: In both cases mirror neurons may be responding to the experienced relationship between those cues and the motor programs you have used during a game. The links between the mirror system and more traditional learning and memory principles have important implications. As described above, the mirror system is thought to be fundamental to empathy and social cognition, and disruptions in it may be related to autism, schizophrenia, and other disorders. The possibility of a trainable mirror system opens the door to treatments that ‘iron out’ such distortions.