title: Abnormal agency experiences in schizophrenia patients: Examining the role of psychotic symptoms and familial risk.
abstract: Experiencing self-agency over one's own action outcomes is essential for social functioning. Recent research revealed that patients with schizophrenia do not use implicitly available information about their action-outcomes (i.e., prime-based agency inference) to arrive at self-agency experiences. Here, we examined whether this is related to symptoms and/or familial risk to develop the disease. Fifty-four patients, 54 controls, and 19 unaffected (and unrelated) siblings performed an agency inference task, in which experienced agency was measured over action-outcomes that matched or mismatched outcome-primes that were presented before action performance. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and Comprehensive Assessment of Symptoms and History (CASH) were administered to assess psychopathology. Impairments in prime-based inferences did not differ between patients with symptoms of over- and underattribution. However, patients with agency underattribution symptoms reported significantly lower overall self-agency experiences. Siblings displayed stronger prime-based agency inferences than patients, but weaker prime-based inferences than healthy controls. However, these differences were not statistically significant. Findings suggest that impairments in prime-based agency inferences may be a trait characteristic of schizophrenia. Moreover, this study may stimulate further research on the familial basis and the clinical relevance of impairments in implicit agency inferences.
authors.affiliation: Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands. Electronic address: m.prikken@umcutrecht.nl.
authors.forename: Merel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Prikken
authors.affiliation: Utrecht University, Department of Psychology, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Anouk
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: van der Weiden
authors.affiliation: Utrecht University, Department of Psychology, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Renes
authors.affiliation: Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Martijn G J C
authors.initials: MGJC
authors.lastname: Koevoets
authors.affiliation: Academic Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Henriette D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Heering
authors.affiliation: Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: René S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Kahn
authors.affiliation: Utrecht University, Department of Psychology, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Henk
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Aarts
authors.affiliation: Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Neeltje E M
authors.initials: NEM
authors.lastname: van Haren
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D035781:Siblings / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: High-risk; Positive symptoms; Psychosis; Self-agency; Social cognition