Abstract
BackgroundAberrant salience is thought to play a role in the development of the symptoms of schizophrenia, but the hypothesis lacks consistent support. Previous research found no relationship in a population sample between two measures of aberrant salience: the self-report Aberrant Salience Inventory (ASI) and the computerised Salience Attribution Task (SAT), which measures implicit (behavioural) and explicit (self-report) aberrant and adaptive salience. We compared the ASI and SAT in individuals with schizophrenia, with anxiety, and with no mental disorder (unaffected).MethodsIndividuals with schizophrenia (n = 30), anxiety (n = 33), or unaffected (n = 30) completed the ASI and the SAT.ResultsASI scores were higher in the schizophrenia group than anxiety (t(90) = 2.72, p < .01) and unaffected groups (t (90) = 5.29, p < .001) and higher in the anxiety than unaffected group (t(90) = 2.69, p < .01). SAT explicit adaptive salience scores were lower in the schizophrenia group than the anxiety (t(90) = -3.79, p < .001) and unaffected groups (t(90)= -3.86, p < .001). The schizophrenia group also had higher SAT implicit aberrant salience than the anxiety group (t(90) = 2.57, p < .05) but not the unaffected group (t(90) = 3.75, p = .08); there was no difference between anxiety and control groups (t(90) -0.76, p = .45). Group did not affect SAT explicit aberrant salience (F(2,91) = 0.47, p =.63) or implicit adaptive salience (F(90) = 0.62, p = .54). We found no correlation between the ASI and the SAT (all τ < .218, p > .05).DiscussionHigher ASI scores were associated with, but not unique to, schizophrenia. Reduced SAT explicit adaptive salience was associated with schizophrenia, while SAT implicit aberrant salience scores differed between psychopathologies. Consistent with previous findings, there was no relationship between the ASI and the SAT. The ASI is designed to measure a trait associated with schizophrenia. Conversely, the SAT implicit aberrant salience measures response latency to irrelevant stimuli. The lack of relationship between ASI and SAT may, therefore, be due to construct divergence.
Highlights
Cognitive dysfunction is as a hallmark feature of schizophrenia
Unusual cases, such as remitted patients who decide to stop taking clozapine, represent a unique opportunity to understand the effect of antipsychotic medication on cognition, as described in the case study below
Four enhanced assessments were scheduled after two weeks on stable doses of 125, 75, 25 and 0 mg, respectively, which included the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS) and the Clinical Global Impression-Schizophrenia scale (CGI-SCH)
Summary
S351 cognition attribution, which was close to the symptoms area, and the cognitive symptoms factor that was found close to the neuro-cognition area. The strongest nodes are: metacognition-self reflectivity, theory of mind measures of social cognition and visual memory. The current study adds to this body of literature the finding that in a network which includes symptoms, social cognition, neuro cognition and metacognition variables, self-reflection is standing out as being a central connector that has the strongest relationship with other variables. As such it impacts all the network, and interventions targeting metacognitive self-reflection are expected to have secondary effects on additional constructs in the network- i.e additional elements of metacognition, social cognition, neurocognition and symptoms.
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