Journal
PSYCHIATRY RESEARCH
Volume 186, Issue 2-3, Pages 203-209Publisher
ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2010.09.006
Keywords
Schizophrenia; Social cognition; Theory of mind; Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC); Overmentalizing
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In schizophrenia, impairments of theory of mind (ToM) may be due to excessive ('overmentalizing') or defective ('undermentalizing') attribution of mental states. However, most TOM tests differentiate neither between 'overmentalizing' and 'undermentalizing' nor between cognitive and affective ToM in schizophrenia. This study aimed at differentiating these aspects of ToM in 80 patients diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and 80 matched healthy controls using the 'Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition' (MASC). Outcome parameters comprised 1) error counts representing 'undermentalizing' or 'overmentalizing', 2) decoding of cognitive or emotional mental states and 3) non-social inferencing. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) showed significantly abnormal scores for two dimensions of 'undermentalizing' as well as for cognitive and emotional ToM that were not explained by global cognitive deficits. Scores for 'overmentalizing' did not differ between groups, when age, gender, non-social reasoning and memory were controlled. In schizophrenic patients, negative symptoms were associated with a lack of a mental state concept, while positive symptoms like delusions were associated with 'overmentalizing', supporting respective etiological concepts of delusions. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available