Theory of mind, emotion recognition and social perception in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis: Findings from the NAPLS-2 cohort

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Mariapaola Barbato, University of Calgary; Lu Liu, University of Calgary; Kristin S. Cadenhead, University of California, San Diego; Tyrone D. Cannon, Yale University; Barbara A. Cornblatt, Zucker Hillside Hospital; Thomas H. McGlashan, Yale University; Diana O. Perkins, University of North Carolina; Larry J. Seidman, Harvard University; Ming T. Tsuang, University of California, San Diego; Elaine Walker, Emory University; Scott W. Woods, Yale University; Carrie E. Bearden, University of California, Los Angeles; Daniel H. Mathalon, University of California, San Francisco; Robert Heinssen, National Institute of Mental Health; Jean Addington, University of Calgary
• Language: English
• Date: 2015-09
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2015 The Authors.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scog.2015.04.004
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Schizophrenia Research: Cognition
• ISSN: 2215-0013
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 3
• Start Page: 133
• End Page: 139
• Grant/Funding Information: This study was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (grant U01 MH081984 to Dr. Addington; grants U01 MH081928; P50 MH080272; Commonwealth of Massachusetts SCDMH82101008006 to Dr. Seidman; grants R01 MH60720, U01 MH082022 and K24 MH76191 to Dr. Cadenhead; grant U01 MH081902 to Dr. Cannon; P50 MH066286 (Prodromal Core) to Dr. Bearden; grant U01 MH082004 to Dr. Perkins; grant U01 MH081988 to Dr. Walker; grant U01 MH082022 to Dr. Woods; and U01 MH081857-05 grant to Dr. Cornblatt.
• Keywords: Social cognition; Clinical high risk; Schizophrenia; Psychiatry; Psychosis
• Research Categories: Psychology, Clinical; Health Sciences, Mental Health

Abstract

Social cognition, the mental operations that underlie social interactions, is a major construct to investigate in schizophrenia. Impairments in social cognition are present before the onset of psychosis, and even in unaffected first-degree relatives, suggesting that social cognition may be a trait marker of the illness. In a large cohort of individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR) and healthy controls, three domains of social cognition (theory of mind, facial emotion recognition and social perception) were assessed to clarify which domains are impaired in this population. Six-hundred and seventy-five CHR individuals and 264 controls, who were part of the multi-site North American Prodromal Longitudinal Study, completed The Awareness of Social Inference Test, the Penn Emotion Recognition task, the Penn Emotion Differentiation task, and the Relationship Across Domains, measures of theory of mind, facial emotion recognition, and social perception, respectively. Social cognition was not related to positive and negative symptom severity, but was associated with age and IQ. CHR individuals demonstrated poorer performance on all measures of social cognition. However, after controlling for age and IQ, the group differences remained significant for measures of theory of mind and social perception, but not for facial emotion recognition. Theory of mind and social perception are impaired in individuals at CHR for psychosis. Age and IQ seem to play an important role in the arising of deficits in facial affect recognition. Future studies should examine the stability of social cognition deficits over time and their role, if any, in the development of psychosis.