title: Nonverbal Synchrony in Social Interactions of Patients with Schizophrenia Indicates Socio-Communicative Deficits.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Disordered interpersonal communication can be a serious problem in schizophrenia. Recent advances in computer-based measures allow reliable and objective quantification of nonverbal behavior. Research using these novel measures has shown that objective amounts of body and head movement in patients with schizophrenia during social interactions are closely related to the symptom profiles of these patients. In addition to and above mere amounts of movement, the degree of synchrony, or imitation, between patients and normal interactants may be indicative of core deficits underlying various problems in domains related to interpersonal communication, such as symptoms, social competence, and social functioning.
  
  
  METHODS
  Nonverbal synchrony was assessed objectively using Motion Energy Analysis (MEA) in 378 brief, videotaped role-play scenes involving 27 stabilized outpatients diagnosed with paranoid-type schizophrenia.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Low nonverbal synchrony was indicative of symptoms, low social competence, impaired social functioning, and low self-evaluation of competence. These relationships remained largely significant when correcting for the amounts of patients' movement. When patients showed reduced imitation of their interactants' movements, negative symptoms were likely to be prominent. Conversely, positive symptoms were more prominent in patients when their interaction partners' imitation of their movements was reduced.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nonverbal synchrony can be an objective and sensitive indicator of the severity of patients' problems. Furthermore, quantitative analysis of nonverbal synchrony may provide novel insights into specific relationships between symptoms, cognition, and core communicative problems in schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: Division of Molecular Psychiatry, Translational Research Center, University Hospital of Psychiatry, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Zeno
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kupper
authors.affiliation: Department for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.|ARTORG-Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation, University Hospital of Old Age Psychiatry, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Fabian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ramseyer
authors.affiliation: Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, University Hospital of Psychiatry, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hoffmann
authors.affiliation: Division of Systems Neuroscience of Psychopathology, Translational Research Center, University Hospital of Psychiatry, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tschacher
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D012381:Role Playing; D012563:Schizophrenia, Paranoid / Q000523:psychology; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D066107:Social Skills; D014741:Video Recording