Linguistic markers of psychosis in Mandarin Chinese: Relations to theory of mind

TY - JOUR

T1 - Linguistic markers of psychosis in Mandarin Chinese

T2 - Relations to theory of mind

AU - Zhang, Han

AU - Parola, Alberto

AU - Zhou, Yuan

AU - Wang, Huiling

AU - Bliksted, Vibeke

AU - Fusaroli, Riccardo

AU - Hinzen, Wolfram

PY - 2023/7

Y1 - 2023/7

N2 - Disorganized and impoverished language is a key feature of schizophrenia (Sz), but whether and which linguistic changes previously observed in Indo-European languages generalize to other languages remains unclear. Targeting Mandarin Chinese, we aimed to profile aspects of grammatical complexity that we hypothesized would be reduced in schizophrenia in a task of verbalizing social events. 51 individuals with Sz and 39 controls participated in the animated triangles task, a standardized measure of theory of mind (ToM), in which participants describe triangles moving in either a random or an 'intentional' condition. Results revealed that clauses embedded as arguments in other clauses were reduced in Sz, and that both groups produced such clauses and grammatical aspect more frequently in the intentional condition. ToM scores specifically correlated with production of embedded argument clauses. These results document grammatical impoverishment in Sz in Chinese across several structural domains, which in some of its specific aspects relate to mentalizing performance.

AB - Disorganized and impoverished language is a key feature of schizophrenia (Sz), but whether and which linguistic changes previously observed in Indo-European languages generalize to other languages remains unclear. Targeting Mandarin Chinese, we aimed to profile aspects of grammatical complexity that we hypothesized would be reduced in schizophrenia in a task of verbalizing social events. 51 individuals with Sz and 39 controls participated in the animated triangles task, a standardized measure of theory of mind (ToM), in which participants describe triangles moving in either a random or an 'intentional' condition. Results revealed that clauses embedded as arguments in other clauses were reduced in Sz, and that both groups produced such clauses and grammatical aspect more frequently in the intentional condition. ToM scores specifically correlated with production of embedded argument clauses. These results document grammatical impoverishment in Sz in Chinese across several structural domains, which in some of its specific aspects relate to mentalizing performance.

KW - Language complexity

KW - Mandarin Chinese

KW - Schizophrenia

KW - Spontaneous speech

KW - Theory of mind

KW - Language

KW - Humans

KW - Linguistics

KW - Psychotic Disorders

KW - Theory of Mind

KW - East Asian People

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85160594933&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115253

DO - 10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115253

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 37245483

SN - 0165-1781

VL - 325

JO - Psychiatry Research

JF - Psychiatry Research

M1 - 115253

ER -