title: A novel, online social cognitive training program for young adults with schizophrenia: A pilot study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pervasive social cognition deficits are evident early in the course of schizophrenia and are directly linked to functional outcome, making them an important target for intervention. Here, we tested the feasibility of use, and initiated the evaluation of efficacy, of a novel, neuroplasticity-based online training program (SocialVille) in young adults with schizophrenia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Schizophrenia patients (n=17) completed 24 hours of online SocialVille game play either from home or at a clinic, over a 6-10 week period. We examined training feasibility, gains on the SocialVille exercises relative to matched healthy controls (n=17), and changes on measures of social cognition, social functioning, global functioning and motivation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Subjects adhered to training requirements, and rated SocialVille in the medium to high range in satisfaction, enjoyment, and ease of use. Subjects demonstrated significant, large improvements on the speeded SocialVille tasks, and small to moderate improvements on the working memory tasks. Post-training performance on the SocialVille tasks were similar to initial performance of the healthy controls. Subjects also showed improvements on standard measures of social cognition, social functioning, and motivation. No improvements were recorded for emotion recognition indices on the MSCEIT, or on quality of life scales.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study provides an initial proof of concept for online social cognition training in schizophrenia. This form of training demonstrated feasibility and resulted in within-subject gains in social functioning and motivation. This pilot study represents a first step towards validating this training approach; randomized controlled trials, now underway, are designed to confirm and extend these findings.
authors.affiliation: Posit Science, 77 Geary St., Suite 303, San Francisco, CA 94108 ; Department of Optometry, University of California, Berkeley, 487 Minor Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720.
authors.forename: Mor
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nahum
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco ; San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 4150 Clement St., San Francisco, CA 94121.
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.affiliation: San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 4150 Clement St., San Francisco, CA 94121.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Loewy
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco ; San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 4150 Clement St., San Francisco, CA 94121.
authors.forename: Gina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Poelke
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, 300 UCLA Medical Plaza, LA, CA 90095.
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ventura
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, 300 UCLA Medical Plaza, LA, CA 90095 ; Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles.
authors.forename: Keith H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Nuechterlein
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Harvard University, William James Hall 1020, 33 Kirkland St., Cambridge, MA 02138.
authors.forename: Christine I
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Hooker
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, 300 UCLA Medical Plaza, LA, CA 90095 ; VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, 11301 Wilshire Blvd., LA CA 90073 ( mgreen@ucla.edu ).
authors.forename: Michael F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Green
authors.affiliation: Posit Science, 77 Geary St., Suite 303, San Francisco, CA 94108.
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Merzenich
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco ; San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 4150 Clement St., San Francisco, CA 94121.
authors.forename: Sophia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vinogradov
keywords: cognitive remediation; computerized training; early psychosis; first episode; social cognition