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. 2017 Jun 6;12(6):e0178860.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178860. eCollection 2017.

Patients with schizophrenia activate behavioural intentions facilitated by counterfactual reasoning

Fernando Contreras  1   2   3 , Auria Albacete  1   2   3 , Cristian Tebé  4   5 , Bessy Benejam  1 , Agnes Caño  6 , José Manuel Menchón  1   2   3
Affiliations

Patients with schizophrenia activate behavioural intentions facilitated by counterfactual reasoning

Fernando Contreras et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Method: The main variables assessed were: answer to complete a target task (wrong or correctly), and percentage gain in the reaction time (RT) to complete a target task correctly depending on whether the prime was a counterfactual or a neutral-control cue. These variables were assessed in 37 patients with schizophrenia and 37 healthy controls. Potential associations with clinical status and socio-demographic characteristics were also explored.

Results: When a counterfactual prime was presented, the probability of giving an incorrect answer was lower for the entire sample than when a neutral prime was presented (OR 0.58; CI 95% 0.42 to 0.79), but the schizophrenia patients showed a higher probability than the controls of giving an incorrect answer (OR 3.89; CI 95% 2.0 to 7.6). Both the schizophrenia patients and the controls showed a similar percentage gain in RT to a correct answer of 8%.

Conclusions: Challenging the results of previous research, our findings suggest a normal activation of behavioural intentions facilitated by CFT in schizophrenia. Nevertheless, the patients showed more difficulty than the controls with the task, adding support to the concept of CFT as a potential new target for consideration in future therapeutic approaches for this illness.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Overview of the sequential priming paradigm adapted from the original sequential priming paradigm designed by Roese et al. (2008) [28].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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