Affiliations: Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and
Sociocognition, Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile | National Scientific and Technical Research Council
(CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina | Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and
Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Neurology (INECO) and Institute of
Neuroscience, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina | Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile,
Santiago, Chile
Note: [] Corresponding author: Ibañez, Agustin Laboratory of
Experimental Psychology & Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Neurology
(INECO) & CONICET, Castex 3293 (CP 1425) Buenos Aires, Argentina. Tel./Fax:
+54 11 4807 4748; E-mail: aibanez@neurologiacognitiva.org; Web:
http://www.neurologiacognitiva.org/
Abstract: This study examines performance of schizophrenia patients,
unaffected relatives and controls in social cognition, cognitive and
psychiatric scales looking for possible markers of vulnerability in
schizophrenia. Performance of schizophrenia patients from multiplex families,
first-degree relatives, and matched controls was compared and, subsequently,
discriminant analysis method was used for identifying the best predictors for
group membership. By using Multigroup Discriminant Analyses on the three
groups, the best predictors were PANSS, Premorbid Adjustment Scale, Faux Pas
test, and a face/emotion categorizing task. This model obtained 82% correct
global classification, suggesting that the combination of psychiatric scales
and neuropsychological/social cognition tesks are the best approach for
characterizing this disease. Although preliminary, our results suggest that
social cognition tasks are robust markers of schizophrenia family impairments,
and that combining clinical, social and neuropsychological measures is the best
approach to asses patients and relatives vulnerability.
Keywords: Schizophrenia, multiplex family, social cognition, neuropsychology, first degree relatives
