4.4 Article

Getting a tool gives wings even in schizophrenia: underestimation of tool-related effort in a motor imagery task

Journal

NPJ SCHIZOPHRENIA
Volume 7, Issue 1, Pages -

Publisher

NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41537-021-00175-y

Keywords

-

Categories

Ask authors/readers for more resources

Studies have shown that schizophrenia patients, like nonclinical participants, tend to overestimate the benefits and underestimate the effort required when mentally simulating a task involving the use of tools. However, there was no association found between movement durations and psychotic symptoms. This opens up new perspectives on the issue of effort in schizophrenia.
Humans frequently use tools to reduce action-related efforts. Interestingly, several studies have demonstrated that individuals had tool-related biases in terms of perceived effort reduction during motor imagery tasks, despite the lack of evidence of real benefits. Reduced effort allocation has been repeatedly found in schizophrenia, but it remains unknown how schizophrenia patients perceive tool-related benefits regarding effort. Twenty-four schizophrenia patients and twenty-four nonclinical participants were instructed to move the same quantities of objects with their hands or with a tool in both real and imagined situations. Imagined and real movement durations were recorded. Similarly to nonclinical participants, patients overestimated tool-related benefits and underestimated tool-related effort in terms of time when they mentally simulated a task requiring the use of a tool. No association between movement durations and psychotic symptoms was found. Our results open new perspectives on the issue of effort in schizophrenia.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.4
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available