What are the specificities of social cognition in schizophrenia? A cluster-analytic study comparing schizophrenia with the general population.

While social cognition (SC) is widely recognized as being impaired in schizophrenia, little is known about the potential heterogeneity in individuals' functioning. Using a wide range of SC measures and a cluster-analytic approach, we compared SC profiles in the general population and in people with schizophrenia. A total of 131 healthy controls and 101 participants with schizophrenia were included. Groups were compared on sociodemographic, neurocognition, anxiety and depressive mood variables. Three profiles were identified in healthy controls: one with good SC abilities (Homogeneous SC group) and two with specific weaknesses in complex Facial Emotion Recognition (Low FER group) or Affective Theory of Mind (Low AToM group). However, these patterns were not found in participants with schizophrenia, who were characterized rather by levels of SC functioning (i.e., Low, Medium and High SC groups). Importantly, while the High SC group (47.9% of the sample) exhibited normal performances, the two others were underpinned by different pathological processes (i.e., alexithymia for Medium SC group or neurocognition dysfunctioning for Low SC group). These results have important implications for future research as well as for clinical practice regarding assessment methodology and therapeutic interventions.