Social Cognition: A Promising Therapeutic Target in Schizophrenia

As a complex and serious psychiatric disorder characterized by psychotic and non-psychotic symptoms, and one of the most disabling conditions, schizophrenia includes various forms of delusions, hallucinations, thought disorder, attention, volition, and drive. Recent studies have shown the link between cognitive deficits and environmental factors to poor and impaired social functioning, both fundamental symptoms of schizophrenia. Social cognition, cognitive processes that perceive, encode, store, retrieve, and regulate information about other people and social contexts, is a crucial segment in the process of accurate understanding and perception of one’s own social environment as well as other individuals’ intentions, dispositions, and behaviors. Through these social cognitive abilities, individuals become functional participants in different social contexts. However, schizophrenia appears to eradicate these abilities. A deficiency to monitor their own and other persons’ mental states and behavior leads to reduced capacities to engage effectively in communication processes and social interactions, a lower level of satisfaction in social interaction, and an impairment of daily functioning for individuals with schizophrenia. Core social-cognitive domains for the study of schizophrenia are emotion processing, social perception, theory of mind/mental state attribution (ToM), and attributional style/bias. Empirical evidence indicates that schizophrenia is associated with a particular deficit in ToM. These domains are also utilized to measure social cognition. Emotional processing focuses on perceiving and using emotion to facilitate adaptive functioning; social perception underlines a person’s ability to judge social cues; theory of mind refers to the ability to infer intentions, dispositions, and beliefs of others; attributional bias refers to systematic errors made when individuals evaluate or attempt to find reasons for their own and others’ behaviors. Social functioning and skills in individuals with schizophrenia may thus significantly improve in terms of practical outcomes by utilizing social cognition in the treatment of schizophrenia symptoms.