Social Cognition in Autism and Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders

Social cognition refers to the mental operations involved in perceiving, interpreting and responding to the intentions, emotions and behaviours of others. Impairments in social cognition are a central feature of both autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD), although they arise through partly distinct developmental pathways. In ASD, difficulties in theory of mind and social reciprocity often manifest in early childhood, leading to challenges in joint attention, perspective-taking and adaptive social interaction. In SSD, social cognitive deficits typically emerge in adolescence or early adulthood, encompassing impaired emotion perception, attributional bias and disrupted social inference. Neuroimaging and genetic studies have revealed overlapping alterations in frontolimbic networks, the superior temporal sulcus and synaptic genes, alongside disorder-specific patterns of prefrontal and limbic dysfunction. Unravelling shared and divergent mechanisms has become a research priority, as it promises refined diagnostic frameworks and targeted interventions—ranging from cognitive remediation to social skills training—that can enhance daily functioning and quality of life across clinical populations worldwide.

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Social Cognition in Autism and Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in social cognition in autism and schizophrenia spectrum disorders across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Theory of mind (ToM): The ability to attribute beliefs, desires and intentions to oneself and others in order to predict and explain behaviour.

Emotion perception: Recognition and interpretation of emotional signals conveyed by facial expressions, vocal intonation and gestures.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs): Somatic cells reprogrammed to a pluripotent state capable of differentiating into multiple neural lineages for in vitro modelling.

Genome-wide association study (GWAS): An approach that scans common genetic variants across the genome to identify associations with traits or disorders.

References

1. Uncovering convergence and divergence between autism and schizophrenia using genomic tools and patients’ neurons. Molecular Psychiatry (2024).
2. Methodological issues in social cognition research in autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia spectrum disorder: a systematic review. Psychological Medicine (2023).
3. Social Cognition in Schizophrenia and Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Direct Comparisons. Frontiers in Psychiatry (2018).
4. Autism Spectrum Disorders and Schizophrenia: Meta-Analysis of the Neural Correlates of Social Cognition. PLOS ONE (2011).