Dissociation of understanding from applying others’ false beliefs in remitted schizophrenia: evidence from a computerized referential communication task

BMC Psychiatry

Bai-hua Xu²  David L Roberts¹  Yong-guang Wang³ 

[1] Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, USA;Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, 148 Tianmushan Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province 310028, China;Department of Mental Health, Hangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China

关键词: Perspective taking;    Referential communication task;    False belief;    Schizophrenia;    Theory of mind;   

Others  :  1124052
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-244X-13-141

 received in 2013-01-26, accepted in 2013-05-15,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

In research on theory of mind (ToM), false belief paradigms are commonly used. Previous studies have reported that there is heterogeneity in the magnitude of impairment on false belief tasks. Moreover, intact ability to attribute others’ false beliefs has been widely reported in patients with remitted schizophrenia. Increasingly, evidence suggests that there may be different cognitive mechanisms underlying the understanding others’ false beliefs versus applying one’s knowledge of others’ false beliefs. Since the role of psychotic symptoms in ToM impairments is an important issue in the study of ToM deficits in schizophrenia, we examined both remitted schizophrenia and non-remitted schizophrenia, with the aim to investigate whether psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia are associated with deficits in understanding others’ mental states or difficulties in applying this understanding.

Methods

The present study investigated 29 patients with non-remitted schizophrenia, 19 patients with remitted schizophrenia, and 22 healthy controls with a revised computerized referential communication task. The ability to understand others’ false beliefs and the ability to apply others’ false beliefs were measured separately.

Results

Patients with non-remitted schizophrenia performed significantly worse than patients with remitted schizophrenia and healthy controls on a task of understanding others’ false beliefs, whereas no significant difference was found between the patients with remitted schizophrenia and healthy controls. Both the patients with non-remitted schizophrenia and patients with remitted schizophrenia performed significantly worse than healthy controls on a task of applying others’ false beliefs.

Conclusions

Our findings suggested a dissociation of understanding others’ false beliefs from applying others’ false beliefs in remitted schizophrenia. We preliminarily conclude that deficits in the ToM ability of applying knowledge of others’ mental states might be state-dependent.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Wang et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

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