Section 2 - Functional implications and course

Summary

This chapter discusses associations between neurocognition and functional outcome that are typically stronger than those found between psychotic symptoms and functional outcome, and sometimes even stronger than those between negative symptoms and outcome. Research in social cognition in schizophrenia has tended to cluster around four types of social cognitive processes: emotion processing, social perception, attributional style, and mental state attribution. Neurocognitive and social cognitive tasks often share cognitive demands, such as working memory and perception. Negative symptoms reflect a decrease or absence of normal functions within two broad domains: internal experience-related impairments, including diminished emotional experience, motivation to engage in productive activities, and desire for social affiliation; expressive or communicative impairments, including diminished facial expressivity, gestures, prosody, and speech production. It has been known for a long time that, neurocognition, negative symptoms are consistent predictors of daily functioning.