Social Cognition of Patients with Schizophrenia: Overview, Brain Mechanisms, Detection, and Intervention

Abstract

Background: Patients with schizophrenia have significant deficiencies in various aspects of social cognition, such as emotional processing, social perception, and theory of mind. These defects have a greater impact on occupational and social functioning than symptoms. Therefore, social cognition is an important therapeutic target for patients with schizophrenia.

Aim: The present study highlights about social cognition of patients with schizophrenia.

Methods: A literature search is used in this narrative review to organize 76 papers from the past 30 years, elaborating on the connotation, role, brain mechanisms, and detection methods of social cognition in patients with schizophrenia. On this basis, several commonly used intervention methods were introduced and compared.

Results: As a result, the social cognition of patients with schizophrenia is significantly impaired, and its mechanism of occurrence is quite complex, involving multiple regions of the brain. Various detection and intervention methods have certain effects, but none of them has been able to determine the key brain areas of social cognition and effectively improve the social cognitive function of patients in real life.

Conclusion: Social cognitive function has a profound impact on the prognosis, social adaptation, and quality of life of patients with schizophrenia, but some key issues such as brain mechanisms and the practical application of intervention effects urgently need to be addressed.