Social Preference System and Social Cognition in Schizophrenia

描述（由申请人提供）：社会认知障碍-适应性人际互动中涉及的心理能力-越来越多地被认为是精神分裂症（SZ）的一个关键特征。SZ的社会认知障碍是普遍存在的，并显着有助于功能和整体生活质量差。然而，尽管有越来越多的文献，但没有总体框架来令人满意地解释SZ在多个社会认知领域（例如，面部情绪识别、心理状态归因。确定这样一个框架将大大提高我们对疾病的理解，并可能对开发新的干预措施以改善SZ的社会认知有价值。以此为长期研究目标，这个探索性的R21项目集中在社会信息处理的核心特征，社会偏好系统（SPS），并将评估是否中断SPS是一个合理的潜在因素，在深圳的社会认知障碍。社会信息的优先处理被称为社会偏好系统（SPS）。SPS的示例包括：优先面向社交信息而非非社交信息（即，社会定向）以及寻求和享受社会信息而不是非社会信息（即，社会奖励）。 当处理社会信息被优先考虑时，感知和体验社会刺激并做出适当反应的机会就会增加，从而发展社会认知技能。与这一观点相一致的是，来自基础科学的新证据强烈支持SPS在社会认知发展中的关键作用。此外，最近已经确定了与SPS相关的独特神经区域。总的来说，中断的SPS是一个合理的解释社会认知功能障碍的SZ。为了实证检验这种可能性，我们假设SZ患者的SPS中断，这种中断的下游影响是受损的社会认知，而非社会认知不受SPS中断的影响。对于35名SZ患者和35名健康对照，我们将采用多模式方法（即，行为、神经成像和自我报告问卷），重点是社会定向和社会奖励，并将评估以下科学目的：1）检查SZ患者是否显示出中断的SPS以及SPS的下游效应是否存在于社会认知中而不存在于非社会认知中;以及2）检查SZ患者是否显示出与SPS相关的异常神经激活。该项目的研究结果可能是有价值的，以确定社会认知功能障碍的根本原因，在深圳，并可以提供深入了解我们的社会认知功能障碍在其他精神疾病。在这方面，该项目符合NIMH战略计划I目标1：促进大脑和行为科学的发现，以推动对精神障碍原因的研究，并符合NIMH研究领域标准（RDoC）项目。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Impairment in social cognition- the mental abilities involved in adaptive interpersonal interactions-is increasingly being recognized as a key feature of schizophrenia (SZ). Social cognitive impairment in SZ is pervasive and contributes significantly to poor functioning and overall quality of life. However, despite a growing body of literature, there is no overarching framework to satisfactorily explain the impairment seen in SZ across multiple social cognitive domains (e.g., facial affect recognition, mental state attribution. Identifying such a framework would substantially improve our understanding of the disease and could be valuable for the development of novel interventions to improve social cognition in SZ. With this as the long-term research goal, this exploratory R21 project focuses on a core feature of social information processing, the social preference system (SPS), and will evaluate whether a disrupted SPS is a plausible underlying factor for social cognitive impairment in SZ. The prioritized processing of social information is referred to as the social preference system (SPS). Examples of the SPS include: preferential orienting to social over nonsocial information (i.e., social orienting) and seeking and enjoying social over nonsocial information (i.e., social reward). When processing social information is prioritized, the opportunity to perceive and experience social stimuli and to respond appropriately increases, thereby developing social cognitive skills. Consistent with this view, emerging evidence from basic science strongly supports the critical role of the SPS in the development of social cognition. Further, unique neural areas associated with the SPS have recently been identified. Overall a disrupted SPS is a plausible explanation of social cognitive impairment in SZ. To empirically examine this possibility, we hypothesize that SZ patients have a disrupted SPS and that the downstream effect of this disruption is impaired social cognition, while nonsocial cognition is not affected by the disrupted SPS. With 35 SZ patients and 35 healthy controls over 2 years, we will employ a multi-modal approach (i.e., performance, neuroimaging and self-report questionnaires) with a focus on social orienting and social reward, and will evaluate the following scientific aims: 1) To examine whether SZ patients show a disrupted SPS and whether the downstream effect of the SPS is present in social cognition but not in nonsocial cognition; and 2) To examine whether SZ patients show aberrant neural activations related to the SPS. The findings of this project could be valuable for determining the underlying causes of social cognitive impairment in SZ and could provide insights into our understanding of social cognitive impairment in other psychiatric illnesses. In this regard, this project is consistent with the NIMH Strategic Plan I Objective 1: Promote Discovery in the Brain and Behavioral Science to Fuel Research on the Causes of Mental Disorders and with the NIMH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) Project.