Social cognition in schizophrenia: A network-based approach to a Taiwanese version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to examine social-cognitive impairments in patients with schizophrenia using the Eyes test. In contrast to previous methods using the correct answers, we developed the Taiwanese version of the Eyes test and constructed the response network to explore impairments in the emotional aspects of theory of mind in patients with schizophrenia. Methods: Eighteen patients with schizophrenia and 18 healthy controls were recruited to examine their performance of the Eyes test. To explore the internal structures of mental states, we used network analysis to construct the networks of choice patterns (i.e. participants' answers) by using two network indicators, including density (an index of structure diversity of a network) and centrality (an index of the choice patterns within a network). Moreover, we divided all the choices into negative, positive, and neutral item groups based on emotion polarity. Results: The patient group was slower and less accurate than the control group. Moreover, there was a negative correlation between accuracy and blunted affect, and there were positive correlations between reaction time and emotional withdrawal and apathetic social withdrawal. As compared to healthy controls, patients with schizophrenia showed larger density in the network structure and higher centrality than controls. Also, patients showed poorer performance on negative words than healthy controls. Conclusion: Our results demonstrated more diversity to recognize negative emotions from patients' choice patterns as compared to those in the control group. These findings suggest that deficits on recognizing negative emotions might be associated with the dysfunctions of mental states in schizophrenia. Keywords: Eyes test, Negative emotion, Network analysis, Schizophrenia, Social cognition