Social cognition and neurocognitive deficits in schizophrenia

While research equivocally supports a relationship between social cognition and neurocognition, it is less clear whether social cognition is related to general cognitive functioning or whether specific aspects of social cognition are linked with specific forms of neurocognition. Thus, this study sought to investigate the relationships between various domains of neurocognition and two forms of social cognition, social cue recognition and social problem solving, for 40 people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Step-wise multiple regressions found that performance on neurocognitive tests was able to predict 47% and 38% of the variance on measures of the ability to recognize actual and suggested social cues, respectively, and 13% of participants' ability to problem solve in ambiguous social situations. Once estimated intelligence and hospitalization history were controlled, however, neurocognition no longer significantly predicted social problem solving. Executive functioning was uniquely related to each type of social cue recognition, while memory predicted only the recognition of concrete social cues.