title: Similar and contrasting dimensions of social cognition in schizophrenia and healthy subjects.
abstract: Schizophrenia patients experience substantial impairments in social cognition (SC) and these deficits are associated with their poor functional outcome. Though SC is consistently shown to emerge as a cognitive dimension distinct from neurocognition, the dimensionality of SC is poorly understood. Moreover, comparing the components of SC between schizophrenia patients and healthy comparison subjects would provide specific insights on the construct validity of SC. We conducted principal component analyses of eight SC test scores (representing four domains of SC, namely, theory of mind, emotion processing, social perception and attributional bias) independently in 170 remitted schizophrenia patients and 111 matched healthy comparison subjects. We also conducted regression analyses to evaluate the relative contribution of individual SC components to other symptom dimensions, which are important clinical determinants of functional outcome (i.e., neurocognition, negative symptoms, motivational deficits and insight) in schizophrenia. A three-factor solution representing socio-emotional processing, social-inferential ability and external attribution components emerged in the patient group that accounted for 64.43% of the variance. In contrast, a two-factor solution representing socio-emotional processing and social-inferential ability was derived in the healthy comparison group that explained 56.5% of the variance. In the patient group, the social-inferential component predicted negative symptoms and motivational deficits. Our results suggest the presence of a multidimensional SC construct. The dimensionality of SC observed across the two groups, though not identical, displayed important parallels. Individual components also demonstrated distinct patterns of association with other symptom dimensions, thus supporting their external validity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore 560029, India. Electronic address: Urvakhsh@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Urvakhsh Meherwan
authors.initials: UM
authors.lastname: Mehta
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore 560029, India. Electronic address: jaga@nimhans.kar.nic.in.
authors.forename: Jagadisha
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thirthalli
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore 560029, India. Electronic address: shaanbhagya@gmail.com.
authors.forename: H D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Bhagyavathi
authors.affiliation: Clinical Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore 560029, India. Electronic address: keshavjk@nimhans.kar.nic.in.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Keshav Kumar
authors.affiliation: Biostatistics, National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore 560029, India. Electronic address: subba@nimhans.kar.nic.in.
authors.forename: D K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Subbakrishna
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore 560029, India. Electronic address: bng@nimhans.kar.nic.in.
authors.forename: Bangalore N
authors.initials: BN
authors.lastname: Gangadhar
authors.affiliation: Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, USA. Electronic address: sme12@pitt.edu.
authors.forename: Shaun M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Eack
authors.affiliation: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston. Electronic address: mkeshava@bidmc.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Matcheri S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Keshavan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009042:Motivation; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012559:Schizophrenia; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012938:Social Perception; D056345:Theory of Mind
keywords: Comparison to normal; Factor analysis; Remission; Schizophrenia; Social cognition