ABSTRACT
Introduction One of the cardinal dysfunctions associated with the schizophrenia phenotype concerns disturbances in social functioning [1]. Although some researchers have argued that this might be a consequence of severe psychopathology, others have demonstrated that social dysfunction is relatively independent of symptomatology [2]. is latter view is further supported by ndings that disturbances in social functioning are already present in early adolescence and often precede the onset of psychosis [3]–[5]. In the search for determinants of social dysfunction in schizophrenia, adequate cognitive processing of social information appears to be of crucial importance. In the last decade a growing body of research demonstrated decits in social information processing in schizophrenia [6], including diculties in emotion recognition [7]–[9], an inability to understand and manipulate other people’s behaviour in terms of their mental states, also called eory of Mind, as well as an insensitivity to interpersonal social cues that refer to someone’s aect and goals [10]. Interestingly, these social cue processing decits seem to be
independent of intelligence, i.e. not attributable to a generalized performance decit [11], but are related to negative symptoms of schizophrenia, such as emotional withdrawal [12] and skills to perceive, process, and send social signs [13].
