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Calmette T, Meunier H. Is self-awareness necessary to have a theory of mind? Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2024. [PMID: 38676546 DOI: 10.1111/brv.13090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2023] [Revised: 04/11/2024] [Accepted: 04/16/2024] [Indexed: 04/29/2024]
Abstract
Forty years ago, Gallup proposed that theory of mind presupposes self-awareness. Following Humphrey, his hypothesis was that individuals can infer the mental states of others thanks to the ability to monitor their own mental states in similar circumstances. Since then, advances in several disciplines, such as comparative and developmental psychology, have provided empirical evidence to test Gallup's hypothesis. Herein, we review and discuss this evidence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tony Calmette
- Centre de Primatologie de l'Université de Strasbourg, Niederhausbergen, 67207, France
- Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives et Adaptatives, UMR 7364, CNRS, Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, 67000, France
| | - Hélène Meunier
- Centre de Primatologie de l'Université de Strasbourg, Niederhausbergen, 67207, France
- Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives et Adaptatives, UMR 7364, CNRS, Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, 67000, France
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2
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Peristeri E, Andreou M, Ketseridou SN, Machairas I, Papadopoulou V, Stravoravdi AS, Bamidis PD, Frantzidis CA. Animacy Processing in Autism: Event-Related Potentials Reflect Social Functioning Skills. Brain Sci 2023; 13:1656. [PMID: 38137104 PMCID: PMC10742338 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13121656] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2023] [Revised: 11/14/2023] [Accepted: 11/28/2023] [Indexed: 12/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Though previous studies with autistic individuals have provided behavioral evidence of animacy perception difficulties, the spatio-temporal dynamics of animacy processing in autism remain underexplored. This study investigated how animacy is neurally encoded in autistic adults, and whether potential deficits in animacy processing have cascading deleterious effects on their social functioning skills. We employed a picture naming paradigm that recorded accuracy and response latencies to animate and inanimate pictures in young autistic adults and age- and IQ-matched healthy individuals, while also employing high-density EEG analysis to map the spatio-temporal dynamics of animacy processing. Participants' social skills were also assessed through a social comprehension task. The autistic adults exhibited lower accuracy than controls on the animate pictures of the task and also exhibited altered brain responses, including larger and smaller N100 amplitudes than controls on inanimate and animate stimuli, respectively. At late stages of processing, there were shorter slow negative wave latencies for the autistic group as compared to controls for the animate trials only. The autistic individuals' altered brain responses negatively correlated with their social difficulties. The results suggest deficits in brain responses to animacy in the autistic group, which were related to the individuals' social functioning skills.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eleni Peristeri
- Language Development Lab, Department of English Studies, Faculty of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, PC 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece;
| | - Maria Andreou
- Department of Speech and Language Therapy, University of Peloponnese, PC 24100 Kalamata, Greece
| | - Smaranda-Nafsika Ketseridou
- Laboratory of Medical Physics & Digital Innovation, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, PC 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; (S.-N.K.); (I.M.); (P.D.B.); (C.A.F.)
| | - Ilias Machairas
- Laboratory of Medical Physics & Digital Innovation, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, PC 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; (S.-N.K.); (I.M.); (P.D.B.); (C.A.F.)
| | - Valentina Papadopoulou
- Department of Psychology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, PC 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece;
| | | | - Panagiotis D. Bamidis
- Laboratory of Medical Physics & Digital Innovation, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, PC 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; (S.-N.K.); (I.M.); (P.D.B.); (C.A.F.)
| | - Christos A. Frantzidis
- Laboratory of Medical Physics & Digital Innovation, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, PC 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; (S.-N.K.); (I.M.); (P.D.B.); (C.A.F.)
- School of Computer Science, University of Lincoln, Lincoln PC LN6 7TS, UK;
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3
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Forrest CL, Lloyd-Esenkaya V, Gibson JL, St Clair MC. Social Cognition in Adolescents with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD): Evidence from the Social Attribution Task. J Autism Dev Disord 2023; 53:4243-4257. [PMID: 35971042 PMCID: PMC10539456 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-022-05698-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/21/2022] [Indexed: 10/15/2022]
Abstract
Social cognition impairments may explain social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD) in individuals with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). In a novel approach, the Social Attribution Task (SAT) was used to examine this association. SAT narratives were coded from 53 participants [n = 26 DLD; n = 27 typical language development (TLD)] matched on age (Mage = 13;6) and gender (35.9% female). Parents reported SEBD. Adolescents with DLD performed worse than their TLD peers on the majority of SAT indices and had higher peer (d = 1.09) and emotional problems (d = .75). There was no association between social cognition abilities and SEBD. These exploratory findings suggest social cognition should be further examined in this population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claire L Forrest
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, 25 Woburn Square, London, WC1H 0AA, UK.
| | | | - Jenny L Gibson
- Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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4
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Perzolli S, Bentenuto A, Bertamini G, Venuti P. Play with Me: How Fathers and Mothers Play with Their Preschoolers with Autism. Brain Sci 2023; 13:brainsci13010120. [PMID: 36672101 PMCID: PMC9857312 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13010120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2022] [Revised: 12/28/2022] [Accepted: 01/09/2023] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
(1) Background: Children can develop cognitive and social skills during play. Most research has focused on mothers, but the paternal features in interaction with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are mainly unexplored. This study aimed to compare fathers’ and mothers’ interactive behaviors with their children with ASD to identify similarities and differences during playful exchanges. (2) Methods: A total of 72 mothers and 72 fathers of paired children with ASD (chronological age: M = 44.61 months; SD = 13.37) took part in this study. Data were collected during 10 min of video-recorded semi-structured interactions with mothers and fathers separately in interaction with their children. (3) Results: Mothers showed more symbolic play (W = 3537; p < 0.001) than fathers, who displayed higher levels of exploratory play (t(139.44) = −2.52; p = 0.013) compared to mothers. However, child cognitive functioning impacts maternal play but not the father’s play characteristics. (4) Conclusions: Highlighting mother−child and father−child features may have important service delivery implications for implementing personalized parental-based interventions based on the strengths and weaknesses of both caregivers in a complementary system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Silvia Perzolli
- Laboratory of Observation, Diagnosis, and Education (ODFLab), Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, 38068 Rovereto, Italy
- Correspondence:
| | - Arianna Bentenuto
- Laboratory of Observation, Diagnosis, and Education (ODFLab), Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, 38068 Rovereto, Italy
| | - Giulio Bertamini
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Pitiè-Salpêtrière Hospital, Sorbonne University, 75651 Paris, France
| | - Paola Venuti
- Laboratory of Observation, Diagnosis, and Education (ODFLab), Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, 38068 Rovereto, Italy
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Liu J, Hu J, Li Q, Zhao X, Liu Y, Liu S. Atypical processing pattern of gaze cues in dynamic situations in autism spectrum disorders. Sci Rep 2022; 12:4120. [PMID: 35260744 PMCID: PMC8904572 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-08080-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2021] [Accepted: 03/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Psychological studies have generally shown that individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have particularity in the processing of social information by using static or abstract images. Yet, a recent study showed that there was no difference in their use of social or non-social cues in dynamic interactive situations. To establish the cause of the inconsistent results, we added gaze cues in different directions to the chase detection paradigm to explore whether they would affect the performance of participants with ASD. Meanwhile, eye-tracking methodology was used to investigate whether the processing patterns of gaze cues were different between individuals with ASD and TD. In this study, unlike typical controls, participants with ASD showed no detection advantage when the direction of gaze was consistent with the direction of movement (oriented condition). The results suggested that individuals with ASD may utilize an atypical processing pattern, which makes it difficult for them to use social information contained in oriented gaze cues in dynamic interactive situations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jia Liu
- College of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China
| | - Jinsheng Hu
- College of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China.
| | - Qi Li
- College of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China
| | - Xiaoning Zhao
- College of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China
| | - Ying Liu
- College of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China
| | - Shuqing Liu
- College of Basic Medical Sciences, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, 116044, China
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Do shapes have feelings? Social attribution in children with autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Transl Psychiatry 2021; 11:493. [PMID: 34564704 PMCID: PMC8464598 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-021-01625-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2021] [Revised: 08/16/2021] [Accepted: 08/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Theory of mind (ToM) deficits are common in children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which contribute to their social and cognitive difficulties. The social attribution task (SAT) involves geometrical shapes moving in patterns that depict social interactions and is known to recruit brain regions from the classic ToM network. To better understand ToM in ASD and ADHD children, we examined the neural correlates using the SAT and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a cohort of 200 children: ASD (N = 76), ADHD (N = 74) and typically developing (TD; N = 50) (4-19 years). In the scanner, participants were presented with SAT videos corresponding to social help, social threat, and random conditions. Contrasting social vs. random, the ASD compared with TD children showed atypical activation in ToM brain areas-the middle temporal and anterior cingulate gyri. In the social help vs. social threat condition, atypical activation of the bilateral middle cingulate and right supramarginal and superior temporal gyri was shared across the NDD children, with between-diagnosis differences only being observed in the right fusiform. Data-driven subgrouping identified two distinct subgroups spanning all groups that differed in both their clinical characteristics and brain-behaviour relations with ToM ability.
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Dickstein DP, Barthelemy CM, Jenkins GA, DeYoung LLA, Gilbert AC, Radoeva P, Kim KL, MacPherson HA. This Is Your Brain on Irritability: A Clinician's Guide to Understanding How We Know What We Know Now, and What We Need to Know in the Future, About Irritability in Children and Adolescents. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am 2021; 30:649-666. [PMID: 34053692 DOI: 10.1016/j.chc.2021.04.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
Irritability is a common reason why children and adolescents are brought for psychiatric care. Although research is advancing what is known about the underlying brain and behavior mechanisms of irritability, clinicians often are shut out of that research. This article explains some of these research methods, providing brief summaries of what is known about brain/behavior mechanisms in disorders involving irritability, including bipolar disorder, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and autism spectrum disorder. Greater access to these methods may help clinicians now and in the future, with such mechanisms translated into improved care, as occurs in the treatment of childhood leukemia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel P Dickstein
- PediMIND Program, Mclean Hospital, 115 Mill Street, Belmont, MA, USA; Simches Center of Excellence in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School.
| | - Christine M Barthelemy
- PediMIND Program, Mclean Hospital, 115 Mill Street, Belmont, MA, USA; Simches Center of Excellence in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School
| | - Gracie A Jenkins
- PediMIND Program, Mclean Hospital, 115 Mill Street, Belmont, MA, USA; Simches Center of Excellence in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School
| | - Lena L A DeYoung
- PediMIND Program, Mclean Hospital, 115 Mill Street, Belmont, MA, USA; Simches Center of Excellence in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School
| | - Anna C Gilbert
- Division of Child Psychiatry, Brown University (Prior PediMIND Program Members)
| | - Petya Radoeva
- Division of Child Psychiatry, Brown University (Prior PediMIND Program Members)
| | - Kerri L Kim
- Division of Child Psychiatry, Brown University (Prior PediMIND Program Members)
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8
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Social Inferences in Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum and Autism: Semantic Analysis and Topic Modeling. J Autism Dev Disord 2021; 52:569-583. [PMID: 33768420 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-021-04957-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/01/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Impoverished capacity for social inference is one of several symptoms that are common to both agenesis of the corpus callosum (AgCC) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This research compared the ability of 14 adults with AgCC, 13 high-functioning adults with ASD and 14 neurotypical controls to accurately attribute social meaning to the interactions of animated triangles. Descriptions of the animations were analyzed in three ways: subjective ratings, Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count, and topic modeling (Latent Dirichlet Allocation). Although subjective ratings indicated that all groups made similar inferences from the animations, the index of perplexity (atypicality of topic) generated from topic modeling revealed that inferences from individuals with AgCC or ASD displayed significantly less social imagination than those of controls.
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Ratajska A, Brown MI, Chabris CF. Attributing social meaning to animated shapes: A new experimental study of apparent behavior. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY 2021; 133:295-312. [PMID: 33678806 DOI: 10.5406/amerjpsyc.133.3.0295] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
In 1944, Heider and Simmel reported that observers could perceive simple animated geometric shapes as characters with emotions, intentions, and other social attributes. This work has been cited over 3000 times and has had wide and ongoing influence on the study of social cognition and social intelligence. However, many researchers in this area have continued to use the original Heider and Simmel black-and-white video. We asked whether the original findings could be reproduced 75 years later by creating 32 new colored animated shape videos designed to depict various social plots and testing whether they can evoke similar spontaneous social attributions. Participants (N = 66) viewed our videos and were asked to write narratives which we coded for indicia of different types of social attributions. Consistent with Heider and Simmel, we found that participants spontaneously attributed social meaning to the videos. We observed that responses to our videos were also similar to responses to the original video reported by Klin (2000), despite being only 13-23 s and portraying a broader range of social plots. Participants varied in how many social attributions they made in response, and the videos varied in how much they elicited such responses. Our set of animated shape videos is freely available online for all researchers to use and forms the basis of a multiple-choice assessment of social intelligence (Brown et al., 2019).
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrianna Ratajska
- Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
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10
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Jung M, Baik SY, Kim Y, Kim S, Min D, Kim JY, Won S, Lee SH. Empathy and Social Attribution Skills Moderate the Relationship between Temporal Lobe Volume and Facial Expression Recognition Ability in Schizophrenia. CLINICAL PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY AND NEUROSCIENCE 2020; 18:362-374. [PMID: 32702215 PMCID: PMC7383013 DOI: 10.9758/cpn.2020.18.3.362] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2019] [Revised: 10/21/2019] [Accepted: 11/05/2019] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Objective While impaired facial expression recognition has been closely associated with reduced temporal lobe volume in patients with schizophrenia, this study aimed at examining whether empathy and social attribution affect such a relationship. Methods A total of 43 patients with schizophrenia and 43 healthy controls underwent a facial expression recognition task (FERT) and magnetic resonance imaging. Basic empathy scale and the social attribution task-multiple choice were used to measure empathy and social attribution. Results Patients with schizophrenia showed significant positive correlations between the total temporal lobe volume and the FERT-accuracy (FERT-ACC). Diminished temporal lobe volume predicted the impaired facial emotion recognition ability. Both empathy and social attribution played roles as moderators of the path from the left amygdala volume, left fusiform gyrus volume, both sides of the superior temporal gyrus volume, and left middle temporal gyrus volume to the FERT-ACC. In contrast, empathy alone functioned as a moderator between the right fusiform gyrus volume, right middle temporal gyrus volume, and FERT-ACC. No significant interaction was found for healthy controls. Conclusion Our results suggest that social cognition remediation training on empathy and social attribution, could buffer the negative effects of small temporal lobe volume on interpersonal emotional communication in patients with schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Minjee Jung
- Department of Psychiatry, Clinical Emotion and Cognition Research Laboratory, Inje University College of Medicine, Goyang, Korea
| | - Seung Yeon Baik
- Department of Psychiatry, Clinical Emotion and Cognition Research Laboratory, Inje University College of Medicine, Goyang, Korea
| | - Yourim Kim
- Department of Psychiatry, Clinical Emotion and Cognition Research Laboratory, Inje University College of Medicine, Goyang, Korea
| | - Sungkean Kim
- Department of Psychiatry, Clinical Emotion and Cognition Research Laboratory, Inje University College of Medicine, Goyang, Korea
| | - Dongil Min
- Department of Psychiatry, Clinical Emotion and Cognition Research Laboratory, Inje University College of Medicine, Goyang, Korea
| | - Jeong-Youn Kim
- Department of Psychiatry, Clinical Emotion and Cognition Research Laboratory, Inje University College of Medicine, Goyang, Korea
| | - Seunghee Won
- Department of Psychiatry, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Daegu, Korea
| | - Seung-Hwan Lee
- Department of Psychiatry, Clinical Emotion and Cognition Research Laboratory, Inje University College of Medicine, Goyang, Korea.,Department of Psychiatry, Ilsan Paik Hospital, Inje University College of Medicine, Goyang, Korea
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11
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Ludwig NN, Hecht EE, King TZ, Revill KP, Moore M, Fink SE, Robins DL. A novel social attribution paradigm: The Dynamic Interacting Shape Clips (DISC). Brain Cogn 2019; 138:105507. [PMID: 31855701 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2019.105507] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2019] [Revised: 11/25/2019] [Accepted: 11/26/2019] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
The Dynamic Interacting Shape Clips (DISC) is a novel stimulus set designed to examine mentalizing, specifically social attribution, suitable for use with diverse methodologies including fMRI. The DISC offer some advantages compared to other social attribution stimuli including a large number of stimuli, subsets of stimuli depicting different kinds of social interactions (i.e., friendly approach, aggression, and avoidance), and two control tasks-one that contrasts interpretations of socially contingent movement versus random, inanimate movement, and the other that examines the impact of attentional shifts on mentalizing using the same visual stimuli with a different cue. This study describes both behavioral and fMRI findings from a sample of 22 typically developing adults (mage = 21.7 years, SD = 1.72). Behavioral data supports participants anthropomorphized the stimuli and the social intent of the clips were perceived as intended. Neuroimaging findings demonstrate that brain areas associated with processing animacy and mental state attribution were activated when participants were shown clips featuring social interactions compared to random movement, and when attention was cued to social versus physical aspects of the same stimuli. Results lend empirical support for the use of the DISC in future studies of social cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natasha N Ludwig
- Georgia State University, Department of Psychology and the Neuroscience Institute, P.O. Box 5010, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA
| | - Erin E Hecht
- Georgia State University, Department of Psychology and the Neuroscience Institute, P.O. Box 5010, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA
| | - Tricia Z King
- Georgia State University, Department of Psychology and the Neuroscience Institute, P.O. Box 5010, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA
| | - Kate Pirog Revill
- Georgia State University/Georgia Institute of Technology Joint Center for Advanced Brain Imaging, 831 Marietta St. NW, Atlanta, GA 30318, USA
| | - Makeda Moore
- Georgia State University, Department of Psychology and the Neuroscience Institute, P.O. Box 5010, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA
| | - Sarah E Fink
- Georgia State University, Department of Psychology and the Neuroscience Institute, P.O. Box 5010, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA
| | - Diana L Robins
- Georgia State University, Department of Psychology and the Neuroscience Institute, P.O. Box 5010, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA.
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So WC, Cheng CH, Lam WY, Wong T, Law WW, Huang Y, Ng KC, Tung HC, Wong W. Robot-based play-drama intervention may improve the narrative abilities of Chinese-speaking preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder. RESEARCH IN DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES 2019; 95:103515. [PMID: 31670026 DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2019.103515] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2019] [Revised: 09/09/2019] [Accepted: 10/07/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have deficits in their narrative skills and gestural communication. Very few intervention studies have been conducted with the aim of improving these skills. AIMS We examined whether children with ASD who received the robot-based drama intervention had better narrative abilities and gestured more often than their peers who did not receive the intervention. METHODS AND PROCEDURES Preschool children were randomly assigned to the intervention group (N = 13) and waitlist control group (N = 13). Children in the intervention group watched three robot dramas and engaged in roleplays with both robots and human experimenters. Children in both groups took the pre-tests, immediate post-tests, and, two week later, delayed post-tests, in which they narrated three stories. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS There were significant improvements in various narrative measures, including narrative length, syntactic complexity, narrative structure, and cognitive inferences, in the intervention group. There was also an improvement in the average number of overall gestures per clause in this condition. These learning outcomes were maintained in the delayed post-test. These patterns were not found in the waitlist control group. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS A robot-based play-drama intervention can enhance the narrative abilities and gestural communication of children with ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wing-Chee So
- Department of Educational Psychology Department, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
| | - Chun-Ho Cheng
- Department of Educational Psychology Department, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
| | - Wan-Yi Lam
- Department of Educational Psychology Department, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
| | - Tiffany Wong
- Department of Educational Psychology Department, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
| | - Wing-Wun Law
- Department of Educational Psychology Department, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
| | - Ying Huang
- Department of Educational Psychology Department, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
| | - Ka-Ching Ng
- Department of Educational Psychology Department, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
| | - Hiu-Ching Tung
- Department of Educational Psychology Department, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
| | - Wing Wong
- Department of Educational Psychology Department, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
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13
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Kim Y, Kwon A, Min D, Kim S, Jin MJ, Lee SH. Neurophysiological and Psychological Predictors of Social Functioning in Patients with Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder. Psychiatry Investig 2019; 16:718-727. [PMID: 31587532 PMCID: PMC6801316 DOI: 10.30773/pi.2019.07.28] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2019] [Accepted: 07/28/2019] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to examine social functioning in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and explore the psychological and neurophysiological predictors of social functioning. METHODS Twenty-seven patients with schizophrenia and thirty patients with bipolar disorder, as well as twenty-five healthy controls, completed measures of social functioning (questionnaire of social functioning), neurocognition (Verbal fluency, Korean-Auditory Verbal Learning Test), and social cognition (basic empathy scale and Social Attribution Task-Multiple Choice), and the childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ). For neurophysiological measurements, mismatch negativity and heart rate variability (HRV) were recorded from all participants. Multiple hierarchical regression was performed to explore the impact of factors on social functioning. RESULTS The results showed that CTQ-emotional neglect significantly predicted social functioning in schizophrenia group, while HRV-high frequency significantly predicted social functioning in bipolar disorder patients. Furthermore, emotional neglect and HRV-HF still predicted social functioning in all of the subjects after controlling for the diagnostic criteria. CONCLUSION Our results implicated that even though each group has different predictors of social functioning, early traumatic events and HRV could be important indicators of functional outcome irrespective of what group they are.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yourim Kim
- Clinical Emotion and Cognition Research Laboratory, Inje University, Goyang, Republic of Korea
| | - Aeran Kwon
- Clinical Emotion and Cognition Research Laboratory, Inje University, Goyang, Republic of Korea
| | - Dongil Min
- Clinical Emotion and Cognition Research Laboratory, Inje University, Goyang, Republic of Korea
| | - Sungkean Kim
- Clinical Emotion and Cognition Research Laboratory, Inje University, Goyang, Republic of Korea.,Department of Biomedical Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Min Jin Jin
- Clinical Emotion and Cognition Research Laboratory, Inje University, Goyang, Republic of Korea
| | - Seung-Hwan Lee
- Clinical Emotion and Cognition Research Laboratory, Inje University, Goyang, Republic of Korea.,Department of Psychiatry, Inje University, Ilsan-Paik Hospital, Goyang, Republic of Korea
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14
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Solomon D, Pantalone DW, Faja S. Autism and Adult Sex Education: A Literature Review using the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills Framework. SEXUALITY AND DISABILITY 2019; 37:339-351. [PMID: 33311815 DOI: 10.1007/s11195-019-09591-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Adults on the autism spectrum report comparable levels of desire for sex and sexual satisfaction as adults who are not on the spectrum. However, there has been little empirical focus on the need for sexual and relationship-oriented education for youth on the spectrum as they transition to adulthood. In this review, we use the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills Model of sexual health behavior change as a lens through which to understand the experiences of adults on the autism spectrum. We present those insights infused with emerging data and best practices in the field. Overall, it appears clear from the extant literature that providers need to recognize the specific characteristics of autism when developing sexual education curricula. Specifically, the social communication and sensory profile of people on the autism spectrum appears to interact with access to information, motivation to engage in healthy sexual activities, and the development of skills needed to engage in healthy sexual behavior. Finally, the voice of adults on the spectrum is essential to guide the emerging understanding of healthy sexuality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dasha Solomon
- Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, 02215.,Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, 02215
| | - David W Pantalone
- Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston, 02125.,The Fenway Institute, Fenway Health, 02215
| | - Susan Faja
- Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, 02215.,Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, 02215
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15
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Weston CSE. Four Social Brain Regions, Their Dysfunctions, and Sequelae, Extensively Explain Autism Spectrum Disorder Symptomatology. Brain Sci 2019; 9:E130. [PMID: 31167459 PMCID: PMC6627615 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci9060130] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2019] [Revised: 05/31/2019] [Accepted: 06/03/2019] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a challenging neurodevelopmental disorder with symptoms in social, language, sensory, motor, cognitive, emotional, repetitive behavior, and self-sufficient living domains. The important research question examined is the elucidation of the pathogenic neurocircuitry that underlies ASD symptomatology in all its richness and heterogeneity. The presented model builds on earlier social brain research, and hypothesizes that four social brain regions largely drive ASD symptomatology: amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), temporoparietal cortex (TPC), and insula. The amygdala's contributions to ASD largely derive from its major involvement in fine-grained intangible knowledge representations and high-level guidance of gaze. In addition, disrupted brain regions can drive disturbance of strongly interconnected brain regions to produce further symptoms. These and related effects are proposed to underlie abnormalities of the visual cortex, inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), caudate nucleus, and hippocampus as well as associated symptoms. The model is supported by neuroimaging, neuropsychological, neuroanatomical, cellular, physiological, and behavioral evidence. Collectively, the model proposes a novel, parsimonious, and empirically testable account of the pathogenic neurocircuitry of ASD, an extensive account of its symptomatology, a novel physiological biomarker with potential for earlier diagnosis, and novel experiments to further elucidate the mechanisms of brain abnormalities and symptomatology in ASD.
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16
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Brown MI, Ratajska A, Hughes SL, Fishman JB, Huerta E, Chabris CF. The social shapes test: A new measure of social intelligence, mentalizing, and theory of mind. PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2019.01.035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
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17
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Oldershaw A, DeJong H, Hambrook D, Schmidt U. Social attribution in anorexia nervosa. EUROPEAN EATING DISORDERS REVIEW 2019; 26:197-206. [PMID: 29687578 DOI: 10.1002/erv.2588] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2017] [Revised: 02/12/2018] [Accepted: 02/14/2018] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
People with anorexia nervosa (AN) report socioemotional difficulties; however, measurement has been criticised for lacking ecological validity and the state or trait nature of difficulties remains unclear. Participants (n = 122) were recruited across 3 groups: people who are currently ill with AN (n = 40); people who recovered (RecAN, n = 18); healthy-control participants (n = 64). Participants completed clinical questionnaires and the Social Attribution Task. The Social Attribution Task involves describing an animation of moving shapes, scored for number of propositions offered, accuracy, and social relevance. Groups were compared cross-sectionally. Those with current AN were assessed prepsychological and postpsychological treatments. People with AN provided fewer propositions than other groups and fewer salient social attributions than healthy-control participants. Those who recovered scored intermediately and not significantly different from either group. Following treatment, people with AN demonstrated (nonsignificant) improvements, and no significance between group differences were observed. Findings suggest difficulties for people with AN in providing spontaneous social narrative and in identifying social salience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Oldershaw
- Eating Disorder Service, Kent & Medway NHS Social Partnership Trust, Maidstone, UK.,Section of Eating Disorders, Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK.,Salmons Centre for Applied Psychology, Canterbury Christ Church University, Tunbridge Wells, UK
| | - Hannah DeJong
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, UK
| | - David Hambrook
- Talking Therapies Southwark, South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
| | - Ulrike Schmidt
- Section of Eating Disorders, Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK
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18
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Solomon M, Iosif AM, Krug MK, Wu Nordahl C, Adler E, Mirandola C, Ghetti S. Emotional false memory in autism spectrum disorder: More than spared. JOURNAL OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY 2019; 128:352-363. [PMID: 30973243 PMCID: PMC6540798 DOI: 10.1037/abn0000418] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
To advance what is known about how emotions affect memory in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we examined emotional false memory for negative, positive, and neutrally valenced photographs comprising scripts of everyday events in a verbal IQ-case matched sample of youth ages 8-14 with ASD (N = 38) and typical development (TYP, N = 38). The groups exhibited many similarities. Their task performance during a recognition task including previously seen and unseen photographs was largely comparable. They evidenced high hit rates for previously viewed photographs, and low false alarm rates for lure photographs that were inconsistent with the scripts. Both ASD and TYP groups showed relatively higher false alarms for lure photographs depicting previously unseen causes of scenario outcomes (causal errors) compared to errors for script-consistent lure photographs that showed extra potentially related events (gap-filling errors). In both groups, task performance was associated with verbal working memory, but not attention deficit hyperactivity, anxiety, or depression symptoms. However, the ASD group made more causal and gap-filling errors on negative and positive, but not neutral, lures compared to TYP, indicating that viewing emotionally valenced stimuli made it harder to discriminate previously seen and unseen photographs. For the ASD group, task performance was associated with compulsive, ritualistic, and sameness behaviors and stereotypic and restricted interests. Findings suggest that the integration of cognition and emotion in ASD is altered and associated with the presence of repetitive behaviors. The impact of these results on the lives of individuals with ASD and implications for psychosocial interventions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
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Affiliation(s)
- Marjorie Solomon
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, University of California-Davis, Sacramento
- MIND Institute, University of California-Davis, Sacramento
- Imaging Research Center, University of California-Davis, Sacramento
| | - Ana-Maria Iosif
- Department of Public Health Sciences, University of California-Davis, Sacramento
| | - Marie K. Krug
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, University of California-Davis, Sacramento
- MIND Institute, University of California-Davis, Sacramento
| | - Christine Wu Nordahl
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, University of California-Davis, Sacramento
- MIND Institute, University of California-Davis, Sacramento
| | - Elyse Adler
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, University of California-Davis, Sacramento
- MIND Institute, University of California-Davis, Sacramento
| | | | - Simona Ghetti
- Department of Psychology, University of California-Davis
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of California-Davis
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19
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So WC, Wong MKY, Lam WY, Cheng CH, Ku SY, Lam KY, Huang Y, Wong WL. Who is a better teacher for children with autism? Comparison of learning outcomes between robot-based and human-based interventions in gestural production and recognition. RESEARCH IN DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES 2019; 86:62-75. [PMID: 30677695 DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2019.01.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2018] [Revised: 11/16/2018] [Accepted: 01/04/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tend to show deficits in engaging with humans. Previous findings have shown that robot-based training improves the gestural recognition and production of children with ASD. It is not known whether social robots perform better than human therapists in teaching children with ASD. AIMS The present study aims to compare the learning outcomes in children with ASD and intellectual disabilities from robot-based intervention on gestural use to those from human-based intervention. METHODS AND PROCEDURES Children aged six to 12 with low-functioning autism were randomly assigned to the robot group (N = 12) and human group (N = 11). In both groups, human experimenters or social robots engaged in daily life conversations and demonstrated to children 14 intransitive gestures in a highly-structured and standardized intervention protocol. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS Children with ASD in the human group were as likely to recognize gestures and produce them accurately as those in the robot group in both training and new conversations. Their learning outcomes maintained for at least two weeks. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS The social cues found in the human-based intervention might not influence gestural learning. It does not matter who serves as teaching agents when the lessons are highly structured.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wing-Chee So
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
| | - Miranda Kit-Yi Wong
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
| | - Wan-Yi Lam
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
| | - Chun-Ho Cheng
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
| | - Sin-Ying Ku
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
| | - Ka-Yee Lam
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
| | - Ying Huang
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
| | - Wai-Leung Wong
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
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20
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Abstract
Social cognition (SC) appears to contribute to long-term outcomes in schizophrenia; however, little is known about whether different forms of SC are supported by the same cognitive processes. Accordingly, we examined the relationship of two domains of SC: emotion recognition (ER), using the Bell-Lysaker Emotion Recognition Test, and social inference (SI), using the Social Attribution Task-Multiple Choice, to measures of neurocognition, metacognition, theory of mind (ToM), and symptoms. Participants were 72 adults with schizophrenia in a nonacute phase. Multivariate analysis of variance and univariate analysis of variance revealed participants with intact ER had better neurocognition (MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery [MCCB]), metacognition (Metacognition Assessment Scale-Abbreviated), ToM (The Hinting Task), and higher emotional discomfort symptoms than participants with impaired scores. Participants with intact SI had higher MCCB visual and verbal learning and SC scores. Stepwise regressions revealed neurocognition and metacognition uniquely contribute to ER performance. Results suggest ER and SI are differentially related to cognitive processes.
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21
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Hasson-Ohayon I, Goldzweig G, Lavi-Rotenberg A, Luther L, Lysaker PH. The centrality of cognitive symptoms and metacognition within the interacting network of symptoms, neurocognition, social cognition and metacognition in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 2018; 202:260-266. [PMID: 30001972 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2018.07.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2017] [Revised: 06/13/2018] [Accepted: 07/01/2018] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Schizophrenia involves a range of interrelated impairments in functioning due to symptoms and deficits in varying domains of cognition including neurocognition, social cognition and metacognition. Yet little is known whether certain symptoms or cognitive impairments play a more central role than others. To explore, we conducted a network analysis of five types of symptoms, six domains of neurocognition and multiple aspects of both social cognition and metacognition. Participants were 81 adults with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder in a non-acute phase of the disorder. Results of the network analysis suggest that the cognitive symptoms node is most central in the network, metacognition abilities have high strength centrality measures followed by visual learning and emotion identification. In addition, distinction between the four groups of variables was supported. This suggests the need for both cognitive remediation and metacognitively oriented therapies in order to promote recovery from schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Gil Goldzweig
- School of Behavioral Sciences, The Academic College of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo, Israel
| | | | - Lauren Luther
- Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, Department of Psychology, USA
| | - Paul H Lysaker
- Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, Department of Psychology, USA; Roudebush VA Medical Center and the Indiana University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Indiana, USA
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22
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Lee HS, Corbera S, Poltorak A, Park K, Assaf M, Bell MD, Wexler BE, Cho YI, Jung S, Brocke S, Choi KH. Measuring theory of mind in schizophrenia research: Cross-cultural validation. Schizophr Res 2018; 201:187-195. [PMID: 29958750 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2018.06.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2017] [Revised: 04/19/2018] [Accepted: 06/09/2018] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Theory of mind (ToM) is the ability to understand mental states of others and it is crucial for building sensitivity to other persons or events. Measuring ToM is important for understanding and rehabilitating social cognitive impairments in persons with schizophrenia. The Social Attribution Task-Multiple Choice (SAT-MC) has been successfully employed to measure ToM between individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) and healthy controls (HC) in North America. Given that the SAT-MC uses geometric shapes, is nonverbal and less culturally loaded than other social cognition measures, it may serve for measuring ToM in schizophrenia across cultures. A total of 120 participants (30 per group; Korean SZ; Korean HC; North American SZ; North American HC) were selected from existing databases to examine the reliability and validity of the SAT-MC. Internal consistency, factor structure, measurement invariance, discriminant validity, and convergent/divergent validity were examined. The SAT-MC had good internal consistency regardless of the clinical and cultural group as evidence by Cronbach's α ≥ 0.78 in all groups. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the one-factor model with a good model fit (χ2 = 188.122, TLI = 0.958, CFI = 0.963, RMSEA = 0.045). The SAT-MC was sensitive to detect individual differences in ToM of SZ and HC, regardless of culture (p < 0.001), and significantly correlated with other social cognition tasks (Hinting and Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test) among Korean and North American patients. The SAT-MC is a reliable measure for evaluating ToM in both Koreans and North Americans with or without schizophrenia, supporting its potential utility in diverse language and cultures for schizophrenia research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyeon-Seung Lee
- Department of Psychology, Korea University, Liberal Arts Building, Seongbuk-Gu, Anam-Dong, Seoul 136-701, Republic of Korea
| | - Silvia Corbera
- Department of Psychological Science, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT, USA; Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Hartford Hospital, CT, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
| | - Ania Poltorak
- Community Mental Health Affiliates, New Britain, CT, USA
| | - Kiho Park
- Department of Psychology, Korea University, Liberal Arts Building, Seongbuk-Gu, Anam-Dong, Seoul 136-701, Republic of Korea
| | - Michal Assaf
- Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Hartford Hospital, CT, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Morris D Bell
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Bruce E Wexler
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Young-Il Cho
- Department of Psychology, Sungshin University, Seongbuk-Gu, Dongsun-Dong-3Ga, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Sunho Jung
- School of Management, Kyung Hee University, Dongdaemun-gu, Hoegi-Dong, Seoul, Republic of Korea
| | - Sophy Brocke
- Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Hartford Hospital, CT, USA
| | - Kee-Hong Choi
- Department of Psychology, Korea University, Liberal Arts Building, Seongbuk-Gu, Anam-Dong, Seoul 136-701, Republic of Korea.
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23
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Weston CSE. Amygdala Represents Diverse Forms of Intangible Knowledge, That Illuminate Social Processing and Major Clinical Disorders. Front Hum Neurosci 2018; 12:336. [PMID: 30186129 PMCID: PMC6113401 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00336] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2018] [Accepted: 08/02/2018] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Amygdala is an intensively researched brain structure involved in social processing and multiple major clinical disorders, but its functions are not well understood. The functions of a brain structure are best hypothesized on the basis of neuroanatomical connectivity findings, and of behavioral, neuroimaging, neuropsychological and physiological findings. Among the heaviest neuroanatomical interconnections of amygdala are those with perirhinal cortex (PRC), but these are little considered in the theoretical literature. PRC integrates complex, multimodal, meaningful and fine-grained distributed representations of objects and conspecifics. Consistent with this connectivity, amygdala is hypothesized to contribute meaningful and fine-grained representations of intangible knowledge for integration by PRC. Behavioral, neuroimaging, neuropsychological and physiological findings further support amygdala mediation of a diversity of such representations. These representations include subjective valence, impact, economic value, noxiousness, importance, ingroup membership, social status, popularity, trustworthiness and moral features. Further, the formation of amygdala representations is little understood, and is proposed to be often implemented through embodied cognition mechanisms. The hypothesis builds on earlier work, and makes multiple novel contributions to the literature. It highlights intangible knowledge, which is an influential but insufficiently researched factor in social and other behaviors. It contributes to understanding the heavy but neglected amygdala-PRC interconnections, and the diversity of amygdala-mediated intangible knowledge representations. Amygdala is a social brain region, but it does not represent species-typical social behaviors. A novel proposal to clarify its role is postulated. The hypothesis is also suggested to illuminate amygdala's involvement in several core symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Specifically, novel and testable explanations are proposed for the ASD symptoms of disorganized visual scanpaths, apparent social disinterest, preference for concrete cognition, aspects of the disorder's heterogeneity, and impairment in some activities of daily living. Together, the presented hypothesis demonstrates substantial explanatory potential in the neuroscience, social and clinical domains.
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24
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So WC, Wong MKY, Lam WY, Cheng CH, Yang JH, Huang Y, Ng P, Wong WL, Ho CL, Yeung KL, Lee CC. Robot-based intervention may reduce delay in the production of intransitive gestures in Chinese-speaking preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder. Mol Autism 2018; 9:34. [PMID: 29796238 PMCID: PMC5966929 DOI: 10.1186/s13229-018-0217-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2017] [Accepted: 05/02/2018] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Past studies have shown that robot-based intervention was effective in improving gestural use in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The present study examined whether children with ASD could catch up to the level of gestural production found in age-matched children with typical development and whether they showed an increase in verbal imitation after the completion of robot-based training. We also explored the cognitive and motor skills associated with gestural learning. Methods Children with ASD were randomly assigned to two groups. Four- to 6-year-old children with ASD in the intervention group (N = 15) received four 30-min robot-based gestural training sessions. In each session, a social robot, NAO, narrated five stories and gestured (e.g., both hands clapping for an awesome expression). Children with ASD were told to imitate the gestures during training. Age-matched children with ASD in the wait-list control group (N = 15) and age-matched children with typical development (N = 15) received the gestural training after the completion of research. Standardized pretests and posttests (both immediate and delayed) were administered to assess the accuracy and appropriateness of gestural production in both training and novel stories. Children's language and communication abilities, gestural recognition skills, fine motor proficiencies, and attention skills were also examined. Results Children with ASD in the intervention condition were more likely to produce accurate or appropriate intransitive gestures in training and novel stories than those in the wait-list control. The positive learning outcomes were maintained in the delayed posttests. The level of gestural production accuracy in children with ASD in the delayed posttest of novel stories was comparable to that in children with typical development, suggesting that children with ASD could catch up to the level of gestural production found in children with typical development. Children with ASD in the intervention condition were also more likely to produce verbal markers while gesturing than those in the wait-list control. Gestural recognition skills were found to significantly predict the learning of gestural production accuracy in the children with ASD, with such relation partially mediated via spontaneous imitation. Conclusions Robot-based intervention may reduce the gestural delay in children with ASD in their early childhood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wing-Chee So
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China
| | - Miranda Kit-Yi Wong
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China
| | - Wan-Yi Lam
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China
| | - Chun-Ho Cheng
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China
| | - Jia-Hao Yang
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China
| | - Ying Huang
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China
| | - Phoebe Ng
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China
| | - Wai-Leung Wong
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China
| | - Chiu-Lok Ho
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China
| | - Kit-Ling Yeung
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China
| | - Cheuk-Chi Lee
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China
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25
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Johannesen JK, Fiszdon JM, Weinstein A, Ciosek D, Bell MD. The Social Attribution Task - Multiple Choice (SAT-MC): Psychometric comparison with social cognitive measures for schizophrenia research. Psychiatry Res 2018; 262:154-161. [PMID: 29453033 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2018.02.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2017] [Revised: 01/12/2018] [Accepted: 02/02/2018] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Abstract
The Social Attribution Task-Multiple Choice (SAT-MC) tests the ability to extract social themes from viewed object motion. This form of animacy perception is thought to aid the development of social inference, but appears impaired in schizophrenia. The current study was undertaken to examine psychometric equivalence of two forms of the SAT-MC and to compare their performance against social cognitive tests recommended for schizophrenia research. Thirty-two schizophrenia (SZ) and 30 substance use disorder (SUD) participants completed both SAT-MC forms, the Bell-Lysaker Emotion Recognition Task (BLERT), Hinting Task, The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT), Ambiguous Intentions and Hostility Questionnaire (AIHQ) and questionnaire measures of interpersonal function. Test sensitivity, construct and external validity, test-retest reliability, and internal consistency were evaluated. SZ scored significantly lower than SUD on both SAT-MC forms, each classifying ~60% of SZ as impaired, compared with ~30% of SUD. SAT-MC forms demonstrated good test-retest and parallel form reliability, minimal practice effect, high internal consistency, and similar patterns of correlation with social cognitive and external validity measures. The SAT-MC compared favorably to recommended social cognitive tests across psychometric features and, with exception of TASIT, was most sensitive to impairment in schizophrenia when compared to a chronic substance use sample.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jason K Johannesen
- VA Connecticut Healthcare System, Research Service, West Haven, CT, USA; Yale School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, New Haven, CT, USA.
| | - Joanna M Fiszdon
- VA Connecticut Healthcare System, Research Service, West Haven, CT, USA; Yale School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Andrea Weinstein
- Yale School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - David Ciosek
- VA Connecticut Healthcare System, Research Service, West Haven, CT, USA
| | - Morris D Bell
- VA Connecticut Healthcare System, Research Service, West Haven, CT, USA; Yale School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, New Haven, CT, USA
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26
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So WC, Wong MKY, Lam CKY, Lam WY, Chui ATF, Lee TL, Ng HM, Chan CH, Fok DCW. Using a social robot to teach gestural recognition and production in children with autism spectrum disorders. Disabil Rehabil Assist Technol 2017; 13:527-539. [DOI: 10.1080/17483107.2017.1344886] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Wing-Chee So
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong S.A.R
| | - Miranda Kit-Yi Wong
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong S.A.R
| | - Carrie Ka-Yee Lam
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong S.A.R
| | - Wan-Yi Lam
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong S.A.R
| | - Anthony Tsz-Fung Chui
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong S.A.R
| | - Tsz-Lok Lee
- Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong S.A.R
| | - Hoi-Man Ng
- Hong Chi Morninghill School, Tsui Lam, Hong Kong S.A.R
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27
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Langdon R, Flynn M, Connaughton E, Brüne M. Impairments of spontaneous and deliberative mentalizing co-occur, yet dissociate, in schizophrenia. BRITISH JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY 2017; 56:372-387. [PMID: 28603875 DOI: 10.1111/bjc.12144] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2016] [Revised: 05/09/2017] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Evidence of impairment in explicit mentalizing in people with schizophrenia has inspired interventions to improve awareness of others' mental states in these individuals. Less is known of implicit mentalizing in schizophrenia, with current findings mixed. We sought to resolve previous inconsistencies using Heider & Simmel's (H&S) classic animation to elicit spontaneous mentalizing and examined relations between spontaneous and deliberative mentalizing. METHODS Forty-five schizophrenia outpatients and 27 general-community controls completed two explicit theory-of-mind (TOM) tasks and then described the H&S animation (to elicit spontaneous social attributions about emotionally driven, as well as goal-driven, behaviours), before and after an instruction to think of the shapes as people. Accuracy of basic and social facts and frequencies of personification and different mental-state terms were recorded. RESULTS Explicit TOM performance was impaired in patients. Patients also generated fewer social (but not basic) facts than controls to describe the H&S animation, and used less mental-state language, before, and even more so, after the 'people' instruction, despite that both groups had used more personification terms after the 'people' instruction. Measures of explicit and spontaneous mentalizing contributed independently to discriminating between groups. CONCLUSIONS Patients respond less to the bottom-up signals of agency that ought normally to elicit spontaneous social attributions, even when cued to think of the stimuli as people, and the stimuli depict emotionally driven, as well as goal-driven, behaviour. That impairments of spontaneous and deliberative mentalizing dissociate in schizophrenia suggests that training deliberative mentalizing may not be enough; interventions to improve spontaneous mentalizing are also needed. PRACTITIONER POINTS Findings People with schizophrenia were less likely than controls to spontaneously attribute causal mental states when viewing dynamic signals of emotionally driven and goal-driven behaviours. These impairments were even more pronounced when participants were instructed to think of the stimuli as people, suggesting that perceiving others in social roles does not prompt people with schizophrenia to anthropomorphize about others as agents motivated by their own inner worlds. Impairments of spontaneous mentalizing were found to co-occur independently with explicit mentalizing deficits in schizophrenia, consistent with the claim that humans can access two distinct systems for understanding others' minds. Findings suggest that interventions to improve conscious deliberative mentalizing in schizophrenia may not be enough; we also need to target implicit mentalizing processes. Limitations The patient sample was chronic and only mildly symptomatic. As such, findings cannot be generalized to other stages and phases of the illness. All patients were also medicated, allowing for the possibility that automatic responses to socially salient stimuli may have been pharmacologically attenuated. Future research may examine whether unmedicated young people at ultra-high risk of psychosis show a similar profile of mentalizing impairment. Future work may also examine whether impairments of deliberative and spontaneous mentalizing associate differentially with social functioning and different cognitive domains in schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robyn Langdon
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders (CCD) and Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Michaela Flynn
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders (CCD) and Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Emily Connaughton
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders (CCD) and Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Martin Brüne
- CCD and LWL University Hospital, Ruhr University Bochum Clinic for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Preventive Medicine, Bochum, Germany
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Hecht EE, Robins DL, Gautam P, King TZ. Intranasal oxytocin reduces social perception in women: Neural activation and individual variation. Neuroimage 2017; 147:314-329. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.12.046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2016] [Revised: 09/26/2016] [Accepted: 12/15/2016] [Indexed: 10/20/2022] Open
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Goal attribution to inanimate moving objects by Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata). Sci Rep 2017; 7:40033. [PMID: 28053305 PMCID: PMC5215463 DOI: 10.1038/srep40033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2016] [Accepted: 11/30/2016] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans interpret others’ goals based on motion information, and this capacity contributes to our mental reasoning. The present study sought to determine whether Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) perceive goal-directedness in chasing events depicted by two geometric particles. In Experiment 1, two monkeys and adult humans were trained to discriminate between Chasing and Random sequences. We then introduced probe stimuli with various levels of correlation between the particle trajectories to examine whether participants performed the task using higher correlation. Participants chose stimuli with the highest correlations by chance, suggesting that correlations were not the discriminative cue. Experiment 2 examined whether participants focused on particle proximity. Participants differentiated between Chasing and Control sequences; the distance between two particles was identical in both. Results indicated that, like humans, the Japanese macaques did not use physical cues alone to perform the discrimination task and integrated the cues spontaneously. This suggests that goal attribution resulting from motion information is a widespread cognitive phenotype in primate species.
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30
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Hayward EO, Homer BD, Sprung M. Developmental Trends in Flexibility and Automaticity of Social Cognition. Child Dev 2016; 89:914-928. [DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12705] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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31
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Kuzmanovic B, Rigoux L, Vogeley K. Brief Report: Reduced Optimism Bias in Self-Referential Belief Updating in High-Functioning Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 2016; 49:2990-2998. [DOI: 10.1007/s10803-016-2940-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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32
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Pavlova MA. Sex and gender affect the social brain: Beyond simplicity. J Neurosci Res 2016; 95:235-250. [PMID: 27688155 DOI: 10.1002/jnr.23871] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2016] [Revised: 07/06/2016] [Accepted: 07/14/2016] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Marina A. Pavlova
- Department of Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, Medical School; Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen; Tübingen Germany
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33
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Burger-Caplan R, Saulnier C, Jones W, Klin A. Predicting social and communicative ability in school-age children with autism spectrum disorder: A pilot study of the Social Attribution Task, Multiple Choice. AUTISM : THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND PRACTICE 2016; 20:952-962. [PMID: 27121244 DOI: 10.1177/1362361315617589] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
The Social Attribution Task, Multiple Choice is introduced as a measure of implicit social cognitive ability in children, addressing a key challenge in quantification of social cognitive function in autism spectrum disorder, whereby individuals can often be successful in explicit social scenarios, despite marked social adaptive deficits. The 19-question Social Attribution Task, Multiple Choice, which presents ambiguous stimuli meant to elicit social attribution, was administered to children with autism spectrum disorder (N = 23) and to age-matched and verbal IQ-matched typically developing children (N = 57). The Social Attribution Task, Multiple Choice performance differed between autism spectrum disorder and typically developing groups, with typically developing children performing significantly better than children with autism spectrum disorder. The Social Attribution Task, Multiple Choice scores were positively correlated with age (r = 0.474) while being independent from verbal IQ (r = 0.236). The Social Attribution Task, Multiple Choice was strongly correlated with Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales Communication (r = 0.464) and Socialization (r = 0.482) scores, but not with Daily Living Skills scores (r = 0.116), suggesting that the implicit social cognitive ability underlying performance on the Social Attribution Task, Multiple Choice is associated with real-life social adaptive function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca Burger-Caplan
- Department of Psychology, Emory University, USA Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University School of Medicine, USA
| | - Celine Saulnier
- Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University School of Medicine, USA
| | - Warren Jones
- Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University School of Medicine, USA
| | - Ami Klin
- Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University School of Medicine, USA
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Conceptual disorganization weakens links in cognitive pathways: Disentangling neurocognition, social cognition, and metacognition in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 2015; 169:153-158. [PMID: 26441007 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2015.09.026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2015] [Revised: 09/15/2015] [Accepted: 09/18/2015] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Disentangling links between neurocognition, social cognition, and metacognition offers the potential to improve interventions for these cognitive processes. Disorganized symptoms have shown promise for explaining the limiting relationship that neurocognition holds with both social cognition and metacognition. In this study, primary aims included: 1) testing whether conceptual disorganization, a specific disorganized symptom, moderated relationships between cognitive processes, and 2) examining the level of conceptual disorganization necessary for links between cognitive processes to break down. To accomplish these aims, comprehensive assessments of conceptual disorganization, neurocognition, social cognition, and metacognition were administered to 67 people with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. We found that conceptual disorganization significantly moderated the relationship between neurocognition and metacognition, with links between cognitive processes weakening when conceptual disorganization is present even at minimal levels of severity. There was no evidence that conceptual disorganization-or any other specific disorganized symptom-drove the limiting relationship of neurocognition on social cognition. Based on our findings, conceptual disorganization appears to be a critical piece of the puzzle when disentangling the relationship between neurocognition and metacognition. Roles of specific disorganized symptoms in the neurocognition - social cognition relationship were less clear. Findings from this study suggest that disorganized symptoms are an important treatment consideration when aiming to improve cognitive impairments.
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35
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Benson V, Castelhano MS, Howard PL, Latif N, Rayner K. Looking, seeing and believing in autism: Eye movements reveal how subtle cognitive processing differences impact in the social domain. Autism Res 2015; 9:879-87. [PMID: 26614312 DOI: 10.1002/aur.1580] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
Adults with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) viewed scenes with people in them, while having their eye movements recorded. The task was to indicate, using a button press, whether the pictures were normal, or in some way weird or odd. Oddities in the pictures were categorized as violations of either perceptual or social norms. Compared to a Typically Developed (TD) control group, the ASD participants were equally able to categorize the scenes as odd or normal, but they took longer to respond. The eye movement patterns showed that the ASD group made more fixations and revisits to the target areas in the odd scenes compared with the TD group. Additionally, when the ASD group first fixated the target areas in the scenes, they failed to initially detect the social oddities. These two findings have clear implications for processing difficulties in ASD for the social domain, where it is important to detect social cues on-line, and where there is little opportunity to go back and recheck possible cues in fast dynamic interactions. Autism Res 2016, 9: 879-887. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valerie Benson
- School of AU Psychology, Shackleton Building, Highfield Campus, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
| | | | - Philippa L Howard
- School of AU Psychology, Shackleton Building, Highfield Campus, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
| | - Nida Latif
- Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada
| | - Keith Rayner
- Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, U.S.A
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36
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Scheele D, Schwering C, Elison JT, Spunt R, Maier W, Hurlemann R. A human tendency to anthropomorphize is enhanced by oxytocin. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol 2015; 25:1817-23. [PMID: 26092202 DOI: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2015.05.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2014] [Revised: 04/11/2015] [Accepted: 05/25/2015] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
In the course of human evolution, the brain has evolved into a highly sensitive detector of social signals. As a consequence of this socially driven adaptation, humans display a tendency to anthropomorphize, that is they attribute social meaning to non-social agents. The evolutionarily highly conserved hypothalamic peptide oxytocin (OXT) has been identified as a key factor attaching salience to socially relevant cues, but whether it contributes to spontaneous anthropomorphism is still elusive. In the present study involving 60 healthy female participants, we measured salivary OXT concentrations and explored the effect of a single intranasal dose of synthetic OXT (24 IU) or placebo (PLC) on anthropomorphic tendencies during participants׳ verbal descriptions of short video clips depicting socially and non-socially moving geometric shapes. Our results show that endogenous OXT concentrations at baseline positively correlated with the attribution of animacy to social stimuli. While intranasal OXT had no modulatory effect on arousal ratings and did not make the participants more talkative, the treatment boosted anthropomorphic descriptions specifically for social stimuli. In conclusion, we here provide first evidence indicating that spontaneous anthropomorphism in women is facilitated by oxytocin, thereby enabling a context-specific upregulation of the propensity to anthropomorphize environmental cues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dirk Scheele
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Bonn, 53105 Bonn, Germany; Division of Medical Psychology, University of Bonn, 53105 Bonn, Germany.
| | - Christine Schwering
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Bonn, 53105 Bonn, Germany; Division of Medical Psychology, University of Bonn, 53105 Bonn, Germany
| | - Jed T Elison
- Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
| | - Robert Spunt
- Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Wolfgang Maier
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Bonn, 53105 Bonn, Germany; German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), 53175 Bonn, Germany
| | - René Hurlemann
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Bonn, 53105 Bonn, Germany; Division of Medical Psychology, University of Bonn, 53105 Bonn, Germany.
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37
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Song MJ, Choi HI, Jang SK, Lee SH, Ikezawa S, Choi KH. Theory of mind in Koreans with schizophrenia: A meta-analysis. Psychiatry Res 2015; 229:420-5. [PMID: 26233826 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2015.05.108] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/31/2014] [Revised: 05/29/2015] [Accepted: 05/31/2015] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Previous meta-analytic studies conducted in Western countries have consistently revealed impairments in theory of mind (ToM) in schizophrenia. However, there is no systematic meta-analytic review of ToM deficits in individuals with schizophrenia in non-Western countries. In addition, ToM impairments in individuals with schizophrenia have not been investigated in the distinctive domains (i.e., verbal vs. visual, or affective vs. cognitive). The current meta-analytic study systematically synthesized 13 studies comparing ToM performance of adults with schizophrenia (n=377) and that of healthy controls (n=386) in Korea. The results indicate that Koreans with schizophrenia showed overall large ToM impairments (d=-1.273) but intact performance in control tasks that require a similar amount of cognitive demand as ToM tasks do. Large impairments in affective and cognitive ToM (d=-1.445 and -1.202, respectively) and verbal and visual ToM (d=-1.239 and -1.221, respectively) were found in Koreans with schizophrenia. There were no differences in magnitude between affective and cognitive ToM or between verbal and visual ToM. These results suggest that Koreans with schizophrenia experience substantial impairments in various ToM domains. Comprehensive multi-modality-based assessment targeting various ToM domains should be considered for treatment planning of individuals with schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Myeong Ju Song
- Department of Psychology, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Hye Im Choi
- Department of Psychology, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea
| | | | - Seung-Hwan Lee
- Department of Psychiatry, Ilsan Paik Hospital, Inje University, Goyang, South Korea
| | - Satoru Ikezawa
- National Center Hospital, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Kee-Hong Choi
- Department of Psychology, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea.
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38
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Klin A, Shultz S, Jones W. Social visual engagement in infants and toddlers with autism: early developmental transitions and a model of pathogenesis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2015; 50:189-203. [PMID: 25445180 PMCID: PMC4355308 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.10.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 114] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2014] [Revised: 10/01/2014] [Accepted: 10/07/2014] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Efforts to determine and understand the causes of autism are currently hampered by a large disconnect between recent molecular genetics findings that are associated with the condition and the core behavioral symptoms that define the condition. In this perspective piece, we propose a systems biology framework to bridge that gap between genes and symptoms. The framework focuses on basic mechanisms of socialization that are highly-conserved in evolution and are early-emerging in development. By conceiving of these basic mechanisms of socialization as quantitative endophenotypes, we hope to connect genes and behavior in autism through integrative studies of neurodevelopmental, behavioral, and epigenetic changes. These changes both lead to and are led by the accomplishment of specific social adaptive tasks in a typical infant's life. However, based on recent research that indicates that infants later diagnosed with autism fail to accomplish at least some of these tasks, we suggest that a narrow developmental period, spanning critical transitions from reflexive, subcortically-controlled visual behavior to interactional, cortically-controlled and social visual behavior be prioritized for future study. Mapping epigenetic, neural, and behavioral changes that both drive and are driven by these early transitions may shed a bright light on the pathogenesis of autism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ami Klin
- Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta & Emory University School of Medicine, 1920 Briarcliff Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30329, United States.
| | - Sarah Shultz
- Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta & Emory University School of Medicine, 1920 Briarcliff Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30329, United States
| | - Warren Jones
- Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta & Emory University School of Medicine, 1920 Briarcliff Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30329, United States
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39
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David N, Schultz J, Milne E, Schunke O, Schöttle D, Münchau A, Siegel M, Vogeley K, Engel AK. Right temporoparietal gray matter predicts accuracy of social perception in the autism spectrum. J Autism Dev Disord 2014; 44:1433-46. [PMID: 24305776 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-013-2008-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Individuals with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show hallmark deficits in social perception. These difficulties might also reflect fundamental deficits in integrating visual signals. We contrasted predictions of a social perception and a spatial-temporal integration deficit account. Participants with ASD and matched controls performed two tasks: the first required spatiotemporal integration of global motion signals without social meaning, the second required processing of socially relevant local motion. The ASD group only showed differences to controls in social motion evaluation. In addition, gray matter volume in the temporal-parietal junction correlated positively with accuracy in social motion perception in the ASD group. Our findings suggest that social-perceptual difficulties in ASD cannot be reduced to deficits in spatial-temporal integration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole David
- Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany,
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Georgescu AL, Kuzmanovic B, Roth D, Bente G, Vogeley K. The use of virtual characters to assess and train non-verbal communication in high-functioning autism. Front Hum Neurosci 2014; 8:807. [PMID: 25360098 PMCID: PMC4197646 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00807] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2014] [Accepted: 09/22/2014] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
High-functioning autism (HFA) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, which is characterized by life-long socio-communicative impairments on the one hand and preserved verbal and general learning and memory abilities on the other. One of the areas where particular difficulties are observable is the understanding of non-verbal communication cues. Thus, investigating the underlying psychological processes and neural mechanisms of non-verbal communication in HFA allows a better understanding of this disorder, and potentially enables the development of more efficient forms of psychotherapy and trainings. However, the research on non-verbal information processing in HFA faces several methodological challenges. The use of virtual characters (VCs) helps to overcome such challenges by enabling an ecologically valid experience of social presence, and by providing an experimental platform that can be systematically and fully controlled. To make this field of research accessible to a broader audience, we elaborate in the first part of the review the validity of using VCs in non-verbal behavior research on HFA, and we review current relevant paradigms and findings from social-cognitive neuroscience. In the second part, we argue for the use of VCs as either agents or avatars in the context of "transformed social interactions." This allows for the implementation of real-time social interaction in virtual experimental settings, which represents a more sensitive measure of socio-communicative impairments in HFA. Finally, we argue that VCs and environments are a valuable assistive, educational and therapeutic tool for HFA.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Bojana Kuzmanovic
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany
- Ethics in the Neurosciences (INM-8), Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Research Center Juelich, Juelich, Germany
| | - Daniel Roth
- Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Gary Bente
- Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Kai Vogeley
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany
- Cognitive Neuroscience (INM-3), Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Research Center Juelich, Juelich, Germany
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Rice K, Redcay E. Spontaneous mentalizing captures variability in the cortical thickness of social brain regions. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2014; 10:327-34. [PMID: 24847726 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsu081] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Theory of mind (ToM)--or thinking about the mental states of others--is a cornerstone of successful everyday social interaction. However, the brain bases of ToM are most frequently measured via explicit laboratory tasks that pose direct questions about mental states (e.g. "In this story, what does Steve think Julia believes?"). Neuroanatomical measures may provide a way to explore the brain bases of individual differences in more naturalistic everyday mentalizing. In the current study, we examined the relation between cortical thickness and spontaneous ToM using the novel Spontaneous Theory of Mind Protocol (STOMP), which measures participants' spontaneous descriptions of the beliefs, emotions and goals of characters in naturalistic videos. We administered standard ToM tasks and the STOMP to young adults (aged 18-26 years) and collected structural magnetic resonance imaging data from a subset of these participants. The STOMP produced robust individual variability and was correlated with performance on traditional ToM tasks. Further, unlike the traditional ToM tasks, STOMP performance was related to cortical thickness for a set of brain regions that have been functionally linked to ToM processing. These findings offer novel insight into the brain bases of variability in naturalistic mentalizing performance, with implications for both typical and atypical populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katherine Rice
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
| | - Elizabeth Redcay
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
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42
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Slane MM, Lusk LG, Boomer KB, Hare AE, King MK, Evans DW. Social cognition, face processing, and oxytocin receptor single nucleotide polymorphisms in typically developing children. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2014; 9:160-71. [PMID: 24814480 PMCID: PMC6989749 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2014.04.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2013] [Revised: 04/07/2014] [Accepted: 04/08/2014] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent research has provided evidence of a link between behavioral measures of social cognition (SC) and neural and genetic correlates. Differences in face processing and variations in the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene have been associated with SC deficits and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) traits. Much work has examined the qualitative differences between those with ASD and typically developing (TD) individuals, but very little has been done to quantify the natural variation in ASD-like traits in the typical population. The present study examines this variation in TD children using a multidimensional perspective involving behavior assessment, neural electroencephalogram (EEG) testing, and OXTR genotyping. Children completed a series of neurocognitive assessments, provided saliva samples for sequencing, and completed a face processing task while connected to an EEG. No clear pattern emerged for EEG covariates or genotypes for individual OXTR single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). However, SNPs rs2254298 and rs53576 consistently interacted such that the AG/GG allele combination of these SNPs was associated with poorer performance on neurocognitive measures. These results suggest that neither SNP in isolation is risk-conferring, but rather that the combination of rs2254298(A/G) and rs53576(G/G) confers a deleterious effect on SC across several neurocognitive measures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mylissa M Slane
- Bucknell University, Department of Psychology, Program in Neuroscience, 701 Moore Avenue, Lewisburg, PA 17837, USA
| | - Laina G Lusk
- Bucknell University, Department of Psychology, Program in Neuroscience, 701 Moore Avenue, Lewisburg, PA 17837, USA
| | - K B Boomer
- Bucknell University, Department of Mathematics, 701 Moore Avenue, Lewisburg, PA 17837, USA
| | - Abby E Hare
- Geisinger-Bucknell Autism and Developmental Medicine Center, 120 Hamm Drive, Suite 2, Lewisburg, PA 17837, USA
| | - Margaret K King
- Geisinger-Bucknell Autism and Developmental Medicine Center, 120 Hamm Drive, Suite 2, Lewisburg, PA 17837, USA
| | - David W Evans
- Bucknell University, Department of Psychology, Program in Neuroscience, 701 Moore Avenue, Lewisburg, PA 17837, USA.
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Kuzmanovic B, Schilbach L, Georgescu AL, Kockler H, Santos NS, Shah NJ, Bente G, Fink GR, Vogeley K. Dissociating animacy processing in high-functioning autism: neural correlates of stimulus properties and subjective ratings. Soc Neurosci 2014; 9:309-25. [PMID: 24512520 DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2014.886618] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
When movements indicate meaningful actions, even nonbiological objects induce the impression of "having a mind" or animacy. This basic social ability was investigated in adults with high-functioning autism (HFA, n = 13, and matched controls, n = 13) by systematically varying motion properties of simple geometric shapes. Critically, trial-by-trial variations of (1) motion complexity of stimuli, and of (2) participants' individual animacy ratings were separately correlated with neural activity to dissociate cognitive strategies relying more closely on stimulus analysis vs. subjective experience. Increasing motion complexity did not yield any significant group differences, and in both groups, it correlated with neural activity in regions involved in perceptual and evaluative processing, including the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), superior temporal gyrus (STG) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). In contrast, although there were no significant behavioral differences between the groups, increasing animacy ratings correlated with neural activity in the insula, STG, amygdala, dorsal mPFC and PCC more strongly in controls than in HFA. These results indicate that in HFA the evaluation of stimulus properties cuing for animacy is intact, while increasing subjective ratings do not seem to be robustly related to social processing, including spontaneous mental state inferences and experience of salience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bojana Kuzmanovic
- a Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine-Ethics in the Neurosciences (INM-8) , Research Center Juelich , Juelich , Germany
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44
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Molloy CS, Wilson-Ching M, Doyle LW, Anderson VA, Anderson PJ. Visual Memory and Learning in Extremely Low-Birth-Weight/Extremely Preterm Adolescents Compared With Controls: A Geographic Study. J Pediatr Psychol 2013; 39:316-31. [DOI: 10.1093/jpepsy/jst088] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
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Bang J, Burns J, Nadig A. Brief report: Conveying subjective experience in conversation: production of mental state terms and personal narratives in individuals with high functioning autism. J Autism Dev Disord 2013. [PMID: 23179342 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-012-1716-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Mental state terms and personal narratives are conversational devices used to communicate subjective experience in conversation. Pre-adolescents with high-functioning autism (HFA, n = 20) were compared with language-matched typically-developing peers (TYP, n = 17) on production of mental state terms (i.e., perception, physiology, desire, emotion, cognition) and personal narratives (sequenced retelling of life events) during short conversations. HFA and TYP participants did not differ in global use of mental state terms, nor did they exhibit reduced production of cognitive terms in particular. Participants with HFA produced significantly fewer personal narratives. They also produced a smaller proportion of their mental state terms during personal narratives. These findings underscore the importance of assessing and developing qualitative aspects of conversation in highly verbal individuals with autism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Janet Bang
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, McGill University, 1266 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, QC, H3G 1A8, Canada.
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46
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Ahmed AA, Vander Wyk BC. Neural processing of intentional biological motion in unaffected siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder: an fMRI study. Brain Cogn 2013; 83:297-306. [PMID: 24128657 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2013.09.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2013] [Revised: 08/27/2013] [Accepted: 09/22/2013] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Despite often showing behaviorally typical levels of social cognitive ability, unaffected siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder have been found to show similar functional and morphological deficits within brain regions associated with social processing. They have also been reported to show increased activation to biological motion in these same regions, such as the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), relative to both children with autism and control children. It has been suggested that this increased activation may represent a compensatory reorganization of these regions as a result of the highly heritable genetic influence of autism. However, the response patterns of unaffected siblings in the domain of action perception are unstudied, and the phenomenon of compensatory activation has not yet been replicated. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine the neural responses to intentional biological actions in 22 siblings of children with autism and 22 matched controls. The presented actions were either congruent or incongruent with the actor's emotional cue. Prior studies reported that typically developing children and adults, but not children with autism, show increased activation to incongruent actions (relative to congruent), within the pSTS and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. We report that unaffected siblings did not show a compensatory response, or a preference for incongruent over congruent trials, in any brain region. Moreover, interaction analyses revealed a sub-region of the pSTS in which control children showed an incongruency preference to a significantly greater degree than siblings, which suggests a localized deficit in siblings. A sample of children with autism also did not show differential activation in the pSTS, providing further evidence that it is an area of selective disruption in children with autism and siblings. While reduced activation to both conditions was unique to the autism sample, lack of differentiation to incongruent and congruent intentional actions was common to both children with ASD and unaffected siblings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alex A Ahmed
- Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, 230 South Frontage Road, New Haven, CT 06519, United States
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47
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The Social Attribution Task-Multiple Choice (SAT-MC): A Psychometric and Equivalence Study of an Alternate Form. ISRN PSYCHIATRY 2013; 2013:830825. [PMID: 23864984 PMCID: PMC3706019 DOI: 10.1155/2013/830825] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2013] [Accepted: 06/04/2013] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
The Social Attribution Task-Multiple Choice (SAT-MC) uses a 64-second video of geometric shapes set in motion to portray themes of social relatedness and intentions. Considered a test of "Theory of Mind," the SAT-MC assesses implicit social attribution formation while reducing verbal and basic cognitive demands required of other common measures. We present a comparability analysis of the SAT-MC and the new SAT-MC-II, an alternate form created for repeat testing, in a university sample (n = 92). Score distributions and patterns of association with external validation measures were nearly identical between the two forms, with convergent and discriminant validity supported by association with affect recognition ability and lack of association with basic visual reasoning. Internal consistency of the SAT-MC-II was superior (alpha = .81) to the SAT-MC (alpha = .56). Results support the use of SAT-MC and new SAT-MC-II as equivalent test forms. Demonstrating relatively higher association to social cognitive than basic cognitive abilities, the SAT-MC may provide enhanced sensitivity as an outcome measure of social cognitive intervention trials.
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48
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Dickstein DP, Pescosolido MF, Reidy BL, Galvan T, Kim KL, Seymour KE, Laird AR, Di Martino A, Barrett RP. Developmental meta-analysis of the functional neural correlates of autism spectrum disorders. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2013; 52:279-289.e16. [PMID: 23452684 PMCID: PMC5441228 DOI: 10.1016/j.jaac.2012.12.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 64] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2012] [Revised: 11/26/2012] [Accepted: 12/18/2012] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE There is a pressing need to elucidate the brain-behavior interactions underlying autism spectrum disorders (ASD) given the marked rise in ASD diagnosis over the past decade. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has begun to address this need, but few fMRI studies have evaluated age-related changes in ASD. Therefore, we conducted a developmental analysis of activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis to compare child versus adult ASD fMRI studies. We hypothesized that children and adolescents with ASD (<18 years old) would rely less on prefrontal cortex structures than adults (≥18 years old). METHOD PubMed and PsycInfo literature searches were conducted to identify task-dependent fMRI studies of children or adults with ASD. Then recent GingerALE software improvements were leveraged to perform direct comparisons of child (n = 18) versus adult (n = 24) studies. RESULTS ALE meta-analyses of social tasks showed that children and adolescents with ASD versus adults had significantly greater hyperactivation in the left post-central gyrus, and greater hypoactivation in the right hippocampus and right superior temporal gyrus. ALE meta-analyses of nonsocial tasks showed that children with ASD versus adults had significantly greater hyperactivation in the right insula and left cingulate gyrus, and hypoactivation in the right middle frontal gyrus. CONCLUSION Our data suggest that the neural alterations associated with ASD are not static, occurring only in early childhood. Instead, children with ASD have altered neural activity compared to adults during both social and nonsocial tasks, especially in fronto-temporal structures. Longitudinal neuroimaging studies are required to examine these changes prospectively, as potential targets for brain-based treatments for ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel P. Dickstein
- Bradley Hospital’s PediMIND Program and the Alpert Medical School of Brown University
| | | | - Brooke L. Reidy
- Bradley Hospital’s PediMIND Program and the Alpert Medical School of Brown University
| | - Thania Galvan
- Bradley Hospital’s PediMIND Program and the Alpert Medical School of Brown University
| | - Kerri L. Kim
- Bradley Hospital’s PediMIND Program and the Alpert Medical School of Brown University
| | - Karen E. Seymour
- Bradley Hospital’s PediMIND Program and the Alpert Medical School of Brown University
| | | | | | - Rowland P. Barrett
- Bradley Hospital’s Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities and the Alpert Medical School of Brown University
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Bell MD, Corbera S, Johannesen JK, Fiszdon JM, Wexler BE. Social cognitive impairments and negative symptoms in schizophrenia: are there subtypes with distinct functional correlates? Schizophr Bull 2013; 39:186-96. [PMID: 21976710 PMCID: PMC3523908 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbr125] [Citation(s) in RCA: 67] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Abstract
Social cognitive impairments and negative symptoms are core features of schizophrenia closely associated with impaired community functioning. However, little is known about whether these are independent dimensions of illness and if so, whether individuals with schizophrenia can be meaningfully classified based on these dimensions (SANS) and potentially differentially treated. Five social cognitive measures plus Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) scores in a sample of 77 outpatients produced 2 distinct factors--a social cognitive factor and a negative symptom factor. Factor scores were used in a cluster analysis, which yielded 3 well-defined groupings--a high negative symptom group (HN) and 2 low negative symptom groups, 1 with higher social cognition (HSC) and 1 with low social cognition (LSC). To make these findings more practicable for research and clinical settings, a rule of thumb for categorizing using only the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test and PANSS negative component was created and produced 84.4% agreement with the original cluster groups. An additional 63 subjects were added to cross validate the rule of thumb. When samples were combined (N = 140), the HSC group had significantly better quality of life and Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scores, higher rates of marriage and more hospitalizations. The LSC group had worse criminal and substance abuse histories. With 2 common assessment instruments, people with schizophrenia can be classified into 3 subgroups that have different barriers to community integration and could potentially benefit from different treatments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Morris D. Bell
- VA Connecticut Healthcare System, Rehabilitation Research and Development Service, West Haven, CT,Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT,To whom correspondence should be addressed; Psychology Service 116B, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, CT 06516, US; tel: (203) 932-5711, fax: (203) 937-4883, e-mail:
| | - Silvia Corbera
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT
| | - Jason K. Johannesen
- VA Connecticut Healthcare System, Rehabilitation Research and Development Service, West Haven, CT,Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT
| | - Joanna M. Fiszdon
- VA Connecticut Healthcare System, Rehabilitation Research and Development Service, West Haven, CT,Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT
| | - Bruce E. Wexler
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT
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50
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Factor structure of social cognition in schizophrenia: is empathy preserved? SCHIZOPHRENIA RESEARCH AND TREATMENT 2013; 2013:409205. [PMID: 24455254 PMCID: PMC3876916 DOI: 10.1155/2013/409205] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2013] [Revised: 09/20/2013] [Accepted: 10/09/2013] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Social cognitive impairments are core features of schizophrenia and are closely associated with poor functional outcome. This study sought to identify specific aspects of social cognition and their relationships to measures of social function, quality of life, and neurocognition. Principal component analysis was performed using social cognitive measures in patients with schizophrenia and healthy matched controls and revealed three factors: Interpersonal Discomfort, Basic Social Cognition, and Empathy. Patients had higher scores on Interpersonal Discomfort and lower scores on Basic Social Cognition than controls, but the two groups were the same on Empathy. Lower social performance was significantly correlated with poor Basic Social Cognition in patients and with high Interpersonal Discomfort in controls. While neurocognition was significantly associated with Basic Social Cognition in both groups, it was not associated with Empathy. Social cognitive interventions should emphasize improving basic social cognitive processing deficits, managing Interpersonal Discomfort, and utilizing preserved capacity for empathy as a potential strength in social interactions.
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