Social Processes in individuals at clinical high-risk for psychosis

描述（由申请人提供）：社会缺陷是精神分裂症的标志性特征，最近的证据表明，这种损害可能在精神病的前驱期（精神病首次发作前的阶段）明显。目前社会过程的概念化概述了四个功能结构，包括联系和依恋，社会沟通，感知/理解自我，感知/理解他人。这种理解社会处理的方法强调了对社会行为的维度理解，并强调从多个层次的分析（例如，大脑、行为、自我报告等）。虽然几项不同的研究表明前驱症状中存在社会处理功能障碍的区域（例如，情绪识别和心理理论），迄今为止，还没有多模态调查旨在确定跨四个结构的功能。澄清我们对临床高危人群（那些被认为符合前驱综合征临床标准的人群）社会加工的理解，有助于更广泛地增加我们对社会加工的知识，并提高我们对精神病病因学的理解。该项目旨在澄清一个精神病群体中社会过程的性质，测试四个结构的神经解剖学相关性，并评估精神病症状和社会过程之间关系的个体差异。在本研究中，将通过使用多水平分析（即，行为、成像、自我报告）。社会结构将被测量如下：使用前驱综合征结构化访谈（SIPS）中的社交快感缺失测量来评估归属感和依恋;社会沟通将使用各种与情感相关的任务进行评估（ER-40，FEDT，MSCEIT）以及问卷调查，以了解社交沟通的更多方面（社会反应量表、社会沟通问卷、广泛自闭症表型）;将使用Beck认知洞察力量表和评估精神障碍意识缺失的量表测量自我感知/理解;最后，将使用社会推理意识测试评估对他人的感知/理解。结构和扩散张量成像也将被用于评估目前被认为参与社会功能的神经区域和电路。在整个项目过程中，申请人将接受社会过程，工作 与该领域的专家就情感神经成像，成像数据的统计分析，前驱综合征。该培训计划，包括课程，社会领域的专业培训，座谈会/会议出席，并与赞助商/共同赞助商合作，将使申请人能够有效地完成当前的提案，并发展必要的技能，以追求独立的研究事业调查社会过程，特别是，这个功能域如何表现在精神障碍中。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Social deficits are a hallmark characteristic of schizophrenia, and recent evidence suggests that this impairment may be evident in the prodromal stage of psychosis (the stage immediately preceding the first episode of psychosis). The current conceptualization of social processes outlines four functional constructs including affiliation and attachment, social communication, perception/understanding of self, and perception/understanding of others. This approach to understanding social processing highlights a dimensional understanding of social behavior and emphasizes assessing these constructs from multiple levels of analyses (e.g., brain, behavior, self-report, etc.). Although several distict studies have implicated areas of social processing dysfunction in the prodrome (e.g., emotion recognition and theory of mind) to date, there have been no multimodal investigations designed to determine functioning across the four constructs. Clarifying our understanding of social processing in a clinical high-risk group (CHR) (those deemed to meet clinical criteria for a prodromal syndrome) stands to increase our knowledge of social processing more broadly as well as improve our understanding of the etiology of psychosis. This project aims to clarify the nature of social processes in a CHR group, test for neuroanatomical correlates of the four constructs, and to assess for individual differences in the relationship between psychotic symptoms and social processes. In this study, 40 individuals with a prodromal syndrome and 40 controls will be evaluated by using multiple levels of analysis (i.e., behavior, imaging, self-report). Social constructs will be measured as follows: Affiliation and attachment will be assessed using a measure of social anhedonia from the Structured Interview for Prodromal Syndromes (SIPS); social communication will be evaluated using various emotion-related tasks (ER-40, FEDT, MSCEIT) as well as questionnaires to get at more productive aspects of social communication (social responsiveness scale, social communication questionnaire, broad autism phenotype); perception/understanding of self will be measured using the Beck Cognitive Insight Scale and Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder insight scales; finally, perception/understanding of others will be assessed using The Awareness of Social Inference Test. Structural and diffusion tensor imaging will also be used in order to evaluate neural regions and circuitry currently believed to be involved in social functioning. Throughout the course of this project, the applicant will receive education and training in social processes, work with experts in the field in regards to affective neuroimaging, statistical analyses of imaging data, and prodromal syndromes. This training plan, incorporating coursework, specialized training in social domains, colloquia/conference attendance, and work with the Sponsor/Co-Sponsors will enable the applicant to effectively complete the current proposal as well as develop the necessary skills to pursue an independent research career investigating social processes, and specifically, how this functioning domain manifests in psychotic disorders.