Schedule of Events | Symposia

Exploring dimensional neural and behavioral predictors of global functioning in psychosis: A structural equation modeling analysis

Poster Session D - Monday, March 31, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Taryn Berman^1,2 (tberman1@mgh.harvard.edu), Louis Vinke^1,2, Daphne Holt^1,2; ¹Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, ²Harvard Medical School

Psychotic disorders affect many aspects of daily functioning and can be highly disabling. Some of the factors previously linked to impaired functioning in psychosis are dimensionally expressed across populations with different levels of psychosis liability. Therefore, the current study aimed to identify predictors of functioning in a sample that included healthy individuals with (n=32) and without (n=58) a first degree relative with a psychotic disorder, as well as individuals with a psychotic disorder (n=36). All participants underwent an assessment of social cognition, social motivation, social disconnection-related biases, and neural and behavioral correlates of personal space preferences (an automatic, non-verbal social behavior that has been linked to social functioning). Structural equation modeling was employed to investigate the relative contributions of these variables to global functioning cross-sectionally. Activity in two key nodes of the personal space cortical network, the inferior parietal (β = .377 [.170, .585], p < .001) and dorsal premotor (β = .236 [.016, .449], p = .026) cortices, predicted personal space size, which predicted the latent variable of social disconnection (β = .294 [.100, .484], p = .006). Moreover, social disconnection (β = .340 [.137, .564], p = .006), as well as social cognition (β = .363, 95% CI = [.106, .614], p = .037) and motivation (β = .341 [.063, .563], p = .032) were each significant predictors of global functioning across the sample. Overall, these results highlight the contributions of social disconnection, motivation, social cognition, and an objective neural marker of social behavior, to day-to-day functioning.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Other