Anomalies of Imagination, Self-Disorders, and Schizophrenia Spectrum Psychopathology: A Network Analysis.

Antonio Preti,Andrea Raballo,Josef Parnas,Andreas Rosén Rasmussen,Ditte Sæbye

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2021.808009

Abstract

BackgroundAnomalies of imagination encompass disturbances of the basic experiential structure of fantasies and imagery that can be explored in a semi-structured way with the Examination of Anomalous Fantasy and Imagination (EAFI). We aimed (1) to examine the distribution of anomalies of imagination among different diagnostic groups and a group of healthy controls, and (2) to examine their relation with disorders of basic self, perceptual disturbances and canonical state psychopathology of the schizophrenia-spectrum (positive, negative and general symptoms).MethodsThe 81 participants included patients with schizophrenia or other non-affective psychosis (N = 32), schizotypal personality disorder (N = 15) or other mental illness (N = 16) and healthy controls (N = 18). The assessment encompassed EAFI, Examination of Anomalous Self-Experience (EASE), parts of Bonn Scale for the Assessment of Basic Symptoms (BSABS) and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). For network analysis, the associations of EAFI with the other psychopathological variables were tested by Pearson's correlation coefficient and graphically represented using multidimensional clustering. Comparisons between correlations in the network were tested with Steiger's test.ResultsAnomalies of imagination aggregated significantly in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders compared to other mental illness and healthy controls with no difference between schizophrenia and schizotypal disorder. In the network analysis, anomalies of imagination were closely inter-connected with self-disorders. Although, the anomalies of imagination correlated moderately with perceptual disturbance and positive, negative and general state symptomatology, these dimensions aggregated separately and relatively distant in the network.ConclusionsThe results support that anomalies of imagination are highly characteristic of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and closely related to self-disorders.

Highlights

Patients often report alterations of imaginative experience such as the formation of mental images with vivid character, disturbing contents, and/or strong affects in terms of “fantasies,” “vivid images” or “daydreams.” mainstream psychopathology lacks suitable descriptors for this domain of psychopathology and in current clinical practice the rich variety of these complaints is only partly captured by notions such as obsession and rumination [1]
Anomalies of imagination aggregated significantly in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders compared to other mental illness and healthy controls with no difference between schizophrenia and schizotypal disorder
The results support that anomalies of imagination are highly characteristic of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and closely related to self-disorders

Summary

Introduction

Patients often report alterations of imaginative experience such as the formation of mental images with vivid character, disturbing contents, and/or strong affects in terms of “fantasies,” “vivid images” or “daydreams.” mainstream psychopathology lacks suitable descriptors for this domain of psychopathology and in current clinical practice the rich variety of these complaints is only partly captured by notions such as obsession and rumination [1]. Research investigating mental imagery in mental disorders has almost exclusively drawn on the computational theory of mental imagery [3]. In this approach, which derives from experimental psychology, mental imagery is defined as an internal representation that codes information in the form of depiction and is assessed with experimental tasks [4]. We aimed [1] to examine the distribution of anomalies of imagination among different diagnostic groups and a group of healthy controls, and [2] to examine their relation with disorders of basic self, perceptual disturbances and canonical state psychopathology of the schizophrenia-spectrum (positive, negative and general symptoms)

Methods

Results

Conclusion