ABSTRACT
Persons with schizophrenia exhibit disabilities which profoundly affect their social and independent living skills, and social skills training is expected to be an effective treatment for reducing the level of severity of disabilities. Many factors may influence usage and learning of social skills; little is definitively known regarding which disabilities related to schizophrenia compromise social skills. The present report deals with factors affecting social skills. Twenty persons with schizophrenia (DSM-III-R) were tested using a Japanese version of the role play test, the reliability and validity of which were verified. Subjects were also tested using BPRS, auditory event-related potential (ERP) and WAIS-R. Nonverbal skills showed significant positive correlation with the amplitude of the N1 ERP component and age of onset, and 59% of the variance of nonverbal skills was accounted for by these factors using multiple regression analysis. Nonverbal skills are at least partially based on either automatic discriminating processes or selective attention, reflected in N1A. Information receiving and processing skills showed significant positive correlation with Performance IQ and Global Assessment of Functioning, and 61% of the variance of receiving and processing skills was accounted for by BPRS score, PIQ score and age. These skills are not directly related to elementary cognitive function as assessed by analyzing, for example, the ERP P3 component, but are based on more complex neuropsychological function.
