Linking social cognition with social interaction: Non-verbal expressivity, social competence and "mentalising" in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Background: Research has shown that patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) can be distinguished from controls on the basis of their non-verbal expression. For example, patients with SSD use facial expressions less than normals to invite and sustain social interaction. Here, we sought to examine whether non-verbal expressivity in patients corresponds with their impoverished social competence and neurocognition.

Theory of mind in schizophrenia: the role of clinical symptomatology and neurocognition in understanding other people's thoughts and intentions.

A wealth of studies has demonstrated that patients with schizophrenia are impaired in "theory of mind" (ToM). Here, we used a novel five-factor model of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) to test the hypothesis that selectivity of ToM deficits in schizophrenia depends on the predominating symptoms. We predicted that ToM impairments would be non-selective in patients with pronounced negative (NF) or disorganized symptoms (DF), whereas selective ToM impairment would occur in patients with predominant positive symptoms (PF).

Nonverbal behavior during standardized interviews in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Several studies have consistently shown that patients with schizophrenia or schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) can be distinguished from normal controls on the basis of their nonverbal behavior during standardized interviews, with considerable interactions between negative symptoms and poor facial expressivity. However, most studies have examined unmedicated patients, and gender of both interviewer and interviewee has not been taken into account. In this study we assessed the nonverbal behavior of male and female patients with SSD who were receiving second-generation antipsychotic medication (SGA) using the Ethological Coding System for Interviews (Troisi, 1998).

Mental state attribution, neurocognitive functioning, and psychopathology: what predicts poor social competence in schizophrenia best?

Background: Research into mental state attribution has repeatedly shown that patients with schizophrenia are impaired in their capacity to reflect upon their own and others' beliefs, knowledge and intentions, with important confounds being executive functioning, intelligence, duration of illness, and medication. Furthermore, the extent to which impaired mental state attribution, neurocognition and psychopathology explain abnormal social behavior in schizophrenic patients has been a matter of debate. We sought to determine whether mental state attribution in schizophrenia predicts poor social competence better than "non-social" cognitive factors or psychopathology.