Patients with schizophrenia activate behavioural intentions facilitated by counterfactual reasoning

• Published in: PloS one 2017-06, Vol.12 (6), p.e0178860-e0178860
• Main Authors: Contreras, Fernando, Albacete, Auria, Tebé, Cristian, Benejam, Bessy, Caño, Agnes, Menchón, José Manuel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activation; Activation analysis; Adult; Analysis; Behavior; Bias; Biology and Life Sciences; Clinical decision making; Cognició; Cognition; Cognition & reasoning; Cognition Disorders - diagnosis; Cognition Disorders - physiopathology; Cognitive biases; Cognitive Dysfunction - diagnosis; Cognitive Dysfunction - physiopathology; Counterfactual thinking; Decision making; Demographics; Esquizofrènia; Female; Humans; Learning - physiology; Male; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mental disorders; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; Patients; Priming; Psychiatry; Raonament (Psicologia); Reaction time; Reaction Time - physiology; Reaction time task; Reasoning; Reasoning (Psychology); Rehabilitation; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia - diagnosis; Schizophrenia - physiopathology; Semantics; Social Sciences
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178860

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. 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%. 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.