Social Cognition and Functioning in Schizophrenia

描述（由申请人提供）：社会认知有多种定义，通常指的是社会互动基础上的心理操作，包括感知、解释、管理和对他人的意图和行为产生反应。社会认知障碍是精神分裂症患者社区功能的决定因素，越来越被视为干预的目标。为了评估社会认知作为治疗终点，有必要在临床试验中纳入可靠和有效的社会认知测量。目前的建议是在翻译的背景下提出的，在这个背景下，我们已经转向社会神经科学来选择具有良好有效性的措施，并且对精神分裂症患者的临床研究非常有希望。为此，我们召集了来自加州大学洛杉矶分校、哥伦比亚大学和北卡罗来纳大学的实验精神病理学、社会神经科学、临床试验方法学和心理测量学方面的科学专家。该项目有三个目标：第一个目标是确定从社会神经科学中选择的测量方法在多大程度上适合用于精神分裂症的临床试验。第二个目标是使用这些措施来解释精神分裂症患者功能中无法解释的差异。第三个目标是更好地理解社会认知在精神分裂症的基本（非社会）认知和功能之间作为中介的方式。这些研究目标将在240名精神分裂症患者（每4周测试两次）和50名健康对照受试者（测试一次）的样本中进行评估。参与者将在两个演出场地（洛杉矶和教堂山）平均招募。该提案是根据NIMH资助机会公告（FOA） PA-08-255“精神障碍患者的功能”提交的，它解决了NIMH战略计划的两个目标。在目标1（促进大脑和行为科学的发现）中，该项目与“解构复杂行为集群并试图将它们与潜在的神经生物学系统联系起来”的目标是一致的。在本研究中，我们将：1)解构精神分裂症的基本认知和社会认知，2)区分社会认知中的子过程。在目标3（开发新的和更好的干预措施）中，我们的项目与“通过治疗研究中结果测量的含义扩大关注范围”的目标是一致的。我们将评估社会神经科学在精神分裂症认知增强临床试验中的应用，并广泛关注改善整体功能。该项目的长期目标是：1)了解精神分裂症患者社区功能的决定因素；2)促进开发治疗社会认知缺陷的有效药物，帮助精神分裂症患者在日常生活中获得技能和功能。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Social cognition is defined in various ways, and generally refers to mental operations that underlie social interactions, including perceiving, interpreting, managing, and generating responses to the intentions and behaviors of others. Social cognitive impairments are determinants of community functioning in schizophrenia and are increasingly viewed as targets of intervention. To evaluate social cognition as a treatment endpoint, it is necessary to include reliable and valid social cognitive measures in clinical trials. The current proposal is framed in a translational context, in which we have turned to social neuroscience to select measures that have good validity and that are highly promising for clinical studies with schizophrenia patients. To this end, we assembled scientific experts in experimental psychopathology, social neuroscience, clinical trial methodology, and psychometrics from UCLA, Columbia University, and University of North Carolina. The project has three aims: The first aim is to determine the extent to which selected measures from social neuroscience are suitable for use in clinical trials of schizophrenia. The second aim is to use these measures to account for unexplained variance in a functioning in schizophrenia. The third aim is to better understand the ways in which social cognition acts as a mediator between basic (non-social) cognition and functioning in schizophrenia. These study aims will be evaluated in a sample of 240 schizophrenia patients (tested twice at a 4-week interval) and 50 healthy comparison subjects (tested once). Participants will be recruited equally at two performance sites (Los Angeles and Chapel Hill). This proposal is submitted under NIMH Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) PA-08-255 "Functioning of People with Mental Disorders" and it addresses two objectives of the NIMH Strategic Plan. Within Objective 1 (Promote Discovery in Brain and Behavioral Sciences) this project is consistent with the goal to "deconstruct clusters of complex behaviors and attempt to link these to underlying neurobiological systems." In this study we will: 1) deconstruct basic cognition and social cognition in schizophrenia and 2) differentiate subprocesses within social cognition. Within Objective 3 (Develop new and better interventions), our project is consistent with the goal to "broaden the focus by what is meant by outcome measures in treatment research." We will evaluate measures from social neuroscience for their use in clinical trials of cognition enhancement in schizophrenia with a broad focus on improving overall functioning. The long-term goals of this project are to: 1) understand the determinants of community functioning in schizophrenia and 2) facilitate the development of effective drugs for social cognitive deficits that will help individuals with schizophrenia acquire skills and function better in their daily lives. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Social cognitive impairments are determinants of community functioning in schizophrenia and are increasingly viewed as targets for intervention. We developed the current proposal to translate informative measures from social neuroscience for use in schizophrenia research. The long-term goal of this project is to better understand the determinants of community functioning in schizophrenia, and to facilitate the development of effective treatments for social cognitive deficits to help individuals with schizophrenia function better in their daily lives.