title: High functioning individuals with schizophrenia have preserved social perception but not mentalizing abilities.
abstract: Social perception and mentalizing are fundamental social cognitive abilities that are related to functioning and are impaired in schizophrenia. A novel approach to examine the relationship between social cognition and community functioning is to first functionally categorize individuals with schizophrenia and then evaluate social cognitive performance. We evaluated differences in social perception and mentalizing among controls (CON, n=45), high functioning individuals with schizophrenia (HF-SCZ, n=36), and individuals with low functioning schizophrenia (LF-SCZ, n=24). Analyses revealed that HF-SCZ had preserved social perceptual abilities compared to LF-SCZ. Both schizophrenia groups had impaired mentalizing abilities compared to CON, but did not differ from each other. These results suggest that HF-SCZ and LF-SCZ are characterized by differences in the perceptual aspects of social cognition and encourage future research to evaluate the neural basis underlying this preserved ability.
authors.affiliation: Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, 710 N Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60611, United States.
authors.forename: Tatiana M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Karpouzian
authors.affiliation: Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, 710 N Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60611, United States.
authors.forename: Eva C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Alden
authors.affiliation: Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, 710 N Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60611, United States; Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Warren Wright Adolescent Center, 710 N Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60611, United States.
authors.forename: James L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Reilly
authors.affiliation: Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, 710 N Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60611, United States; Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Warren Wright Adolescent Center, 710 N Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60611, United States. Electronic address: matthewsmith@northwestern.edu.
authors.forename: Matthew J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012938:Social Perception; D056345:Theory of Mind / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Community functioning; Mentalizing; Schizophrenia; Social cognition; Social perception