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Social judgement in clinically stable patients with schizophrenia and healthy relatives: behavioural evidence of social brain dysfunction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2007

D. Baas ,
M. van't Wout ,
A. Aleman  and
R. S. Kahn
D. Baas*
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Instituut, Universiteit Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Utrecht, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, The Netherlands
M. van't Wout
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Instituut, Universiteit Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Utrecht, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, The Netherlands
A. Aleman
Affiliation:
BCN Neuroimaging Center, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
R. S. Kahn
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Utrecht, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, The Netherlands
*
*Address for correspondence: D. Baas, Helmholtz Instituut, Department of Experimental Psychology, Universiteit Utrecht, PO Box 80125, 3508 TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands. (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Background

Patients with schizophrenia have been found to display abnormalities in social cognition. The aim of the study was to test whether patients with schizophrenia and unaffected first-degree relatives of schizophrenic patients display behavioural signs of social brain dysfunction when making social judgements.

Method

Eighteen patients with schizophrenia, 24 first-degree unaffected relatives and 28 healthy comparison subjects completed a task which involves trustworthiness judgements of faces. A second task was completed to measure the general ability to recognize faces.

Results

Patients with schizophrenia rated faces as more trustworthy, especially those that were judged to be untrustworthy by healthy comparison subjects. Siblings of schizophrenia patients display the same bias, albeit to a lesser degree.

Conclusions

The pattern of more positive trustworthiness judgements parallels the results from studies of patients with abnormalities in brain areas involved in social cognition. Because patients and siblings did not differ significantly from controls in their general ability to recognize faces, these findings cannot be dismissed as abnormalities in face perception by itself.

Keywords

Amygdalarelativesschizophreniasocial cognitiontrustworthiness
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 38 , Issue 5 , May 2008 , pp. 747 - 754
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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