Schizophrenia, Attention and Theory of Mind; final version 1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating the relationship between Schizophrenia, Attention and Theory of Mind
IRAS ID
153312
Contact name
Paula Moran
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Nottingham
Research summary
Schizophrenia is associated with a breakdown of an attentional filter; reflecting an inability to reduce attention to irrelevant information (Hemsley, 1987). Some theories suggest that as a consequence of dopamine dysregulation in the brain, patients show an inability to allocate attention appropriately. This in turn might lead to spurious associations being formed between various pieces of information in their environment from which unusual thought patterns and symptoms (i.e., delusions) are formed (Kapur, 2005). The inability of schizophrenic patients to block irrelevant information from awareness, and focus attention upon relevant information in order to learn about contingencies within the environment is proposed the core cognitive deficit underlying some symptoms of acute-stages of schizophrenia (Gray et al., 1991), and possibly anxiety (Braunstein-Bercovitz, 2000). There are a number of learning tasks for which a failure to perform them correctly represents the abnormal formation of associations. These include attention-tasks such as latent-inhibition and Kamin-blocking which have previously shown to be disrupted in people with schizophrenia (Lubow & Weiner, 2010). In addition, reduced theory of mind has also been reported in schizophrenia individuals (Schnekel et al., 2005).
Theory of mind is the ability to attribute information, beliefs, intentions, or feelings to others, in order to explain and predict their behaviour. Theory of mind is crucial for healthy social interactions; which may explain some of the poor social interactions associated with schizophrenia. Our previous findings show that performance on attention tasks is associated with activation in brain regions also associated with theory of mind (Moran et al., 2010).The purpose is to investigate whether formation of spurious associations is associated behaviourally with reduced theory of mind in schizophrenia and ascertain their association to specific symptoms. It is important to test this theory because if it is correct then new treatments (both behavioural and pharmacological) can be specifically designed.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/EM/1104
Date of REC Opinion
25 Sep 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion