The dissociation of understanding others’false beliefs from applying others’false beliefs in first-degree relatives of schizophrenia / 中国神经精神疾病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the ability of understanding others’false beliefs and the ability of applying others’false beliefs in first-degree relatives of schizophrenia, respectively. Methods Thirty first-degree relatives of schizophrenia and forty-four normal controls were involved in the present study. The ability of understanding others’ false beliefs and the ability of applying others’false beliefs was assessed with understanding task and applying task with a computerized referential communication paradigm, respectively. Results In understanding task, there was no signifi?cant difference between first-degree relatives and normal controls on False Belief Probe(Z=-0.26, P=0.80)and Reality Probe (Z=-0.41, P=0.68). In applying task, first-degree relatives performed worse than normal controls on tasks of False Belief Command(Z=-4.09, P<0.01), but not Reality Command(Z=-0.21, P=0.83). Conclusions The findings suggest a dissociation of understanding others’false beliefs from applying others’false beliefs in first-degree relatives of schizophrenia.