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. 2023 Jul 4;49(4):997-1006.
doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbad012.

A Bayesian Network Approach to Social and Nonsocial Cognition in Schizophrenia: Are Some Domains More Fundamental than Others?

Samuel J Abplanalp  1   2 , Junghee Lee  3 , William P Horan  2   4 , Robert S Kern  1   2 , David L Penn  5   6 , Michael F Green  1   2
Affiliations

A Bayesian Network Approach to Social and Nonsocial Cognition in Schizophrenia: Are Some Domains More Fundamental than Others?

Samuel J Abplanalp et al. Schizophr Bull. .

Abstract

Objectives: Social and nonsocial cognition are defined as distinct yet related constructs. However, the relative independence of individual variables-and whether specific tasks directly depend on performance in other tasks-is still unclear. The current study aimed to answer this question by using a Bayesian network approach to explore directional dependencies among social and nonsocial cognitive domains.

Study design: The study sample comprised 173 participants with schizophrenia (71.7% male; 28.3% female). Participants completed 5 social cognitive tasks and the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery. We estimated Bayesian networks using directed acyclic graph structures to examine directional dependencies among the variables.

Study results: After accounting for negative symptoms and demographic variables, including age and sex, all nonsocial cognitive variables depended on processing speed. More specifically, attention, verbal memory, and reasoning and problem solving solely depended on processing speed, while a causal chain emerged between processing speed and visual memory (processing speed → attention → working memory → visual memory). Social processing variables within social cognition, including emotion in biological motion and empathic accuracy, depended on facial affect identification.

Conclusions: These results suggest that processing speed and facial affect identification are fundamental domains of nonsocial and social cognition, respectively. We outline how these findings could potentially help guide specific interventions that aim to improve social and nonsocial cognition in people with schizophrenia.

Keywords: DAG; facial affect; negative symptoms; processing speed; psychosis.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Heat map of bivariate correlations between social cognition, nonsocial cognition, negative symptoms, and age. Note. ** p < 0.01; * p < 0.05; Face = Facial affect identification; Bio = Basic biological motion; Self = Self-referential memory; Emo = Emotion in biological motion; Emp = Empathic accuracy; PS = Processing speed; Att = Attention; Wm = Working memory; Vm = Verbal memory; Vis = Visual memory; Rps = Reasoning and problem solving; Aff = Affective flattening; Alo = Alogia; Avo = Avolition-apathy; Anh = Anhedonia-asociality.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
DAG Bayesian network of social cognition and nonsocial cognition. Note. DAG = Directed Acyclic Graph. Edge thickness signifies confidence in the direction of prediction depicted. Blue arrows signify positive predictions, and red arrows signify negative predictions. Face = Facial affect identification; Bio = Basic biological motion; Self = Self-referential memory; Emo = Emotion in biological motion; Emp = Empathic accuracy; PS = Processing speed; Att = Attention; Wm = Working memory; Vm = Verbal memory; Vis = Visual memory; Rps = Reasoning and problem solving.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
DAG Bayesian network of social cognition, nonsocial cognition, negative symptoms, and demographic variables. Note. DAG = Directed Acyclic Graph. Edge thickness signifies confidence in the direction of prediction depicted. Blue arrows signify positive predictions, and red arrows signify negative predictions. Face = Facial affect identification; Bio = Basic biological motion; Self = Self-referential memory; Emo = Emotion in biological motion; Emp = Empathic accuracy; PS = Processing speed; Att = Attention; Wm = Working memory; Vm = Verbal memory; Vis = Visual memory; Rsp = Reasoning and problem solving; Ext = Experiential symptoms (Avolition-apathy, Anhedonia-asociality); Exp = Expressive symptoms (Affective flattening, Alogia).
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