ArticlePloS one2020
Pragmatics, Theory of Mind and executive functions in schizophrenia: Disentangling the puzzle using machine learning.
Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- Spontaneous mentalizing in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders: a meta-analysis.Psychological medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Voice Patterns as Markers of Schizophrenia: Building a Cumulative Generalizable Approach Via a Cross-Linguistic and Meta-analysis Based Investigation.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2023Pooled it
- Cognitive pathways to communicative-pragmatic dysfunction in schizophrenia: The role of autistic symptoms.Schizophrenia research. Cognition · 2026Article
- Vocal Markers of Schizophrenia: Assessing the Generalizability of Machine Learning Models and Their Clinical Applicability.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2026Article
- Expressive pragmatic language in mood and psychotic disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Schizophrenia (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- Being well understood and generating interest during verbal interactions: the role of Theory of Mind and clinical symptoms in people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Pragmatic comprehension and inferential ability: interplay with executive functions and Theory of Mind.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Development and Validation of a Rapid Tool to Measure Pragmatic Abilities: The Brief Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates (APACS Brief).Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Looking for social pragmatic communication disorder in the complex world of Italian special needs: an exploratory study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Assessing communicative-pragmatic ability in telehealth: e-ABaCo in autistic individuals.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Schizophasia and Cognitive Impairment in Schizophrenia: A Literature Review.Brain sciences · 2024Review
- Natural Language Processing and Schizophrenia: A Scoping Review of Uses and Challenges.Journal of personalized medicine · 2024Article
- A machine-learning approach to investigating the complexity of theory of mind in individuals with schizophrenia.Heliyon · 2024Article
- On the specificity of figurative language comprehension impairment in schizophrenia and its relation to cognitive skills but not psychopathological symptoms - Study on metaphor, humor and irony.Schizophrenia research. Cognition · 2024Article
- Language and communication rehabilitation in patients with schizophrenia: A narrative review.Heliyon · 2024Review
- The fuzzy boundaries of the social (pragmatic) communication disorder (SPCD): Why the picture is still so confusing?Heliyon · 2023Review
- Language abnormalities in schizophrenia: binding core symptoms through contemporary empirical evidence.Schizophrenia (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2022Review
- A cross-sectional study to assess pragmatic strengths and weaknesses in healthy ageing.BMC geriatrics · 2022Article
- Article
- Multimodal assessment of communicative-pragmatic features in schizophrenia: a machine learning approach.NPJ schizophrenia · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveSchizophrenia is associated with a severe impairment in the communicative-pragmatic domain. Recent research has tried to disentangle the relationship between communicative impairment and other domains usually impaired in schizophrenia, i.e. Theory of Mind (ToM) and cognitive functions. However, the results are inconclusive and this relationship is still unclear. Machine learning (ML) provides novel opportunities for studying complex relationships among phenomena and representing causality among multiple variables. The present research explored the potential of applying ML, specifically Bayesian network (BNs) analysis, to characterize the relationship between cognitive, ToM and pragmatic abilities in individuals with schizophrenia and healthy controls, and to identify the cognitive and pragmatic abilities that are most informative in discriminating between schizophrenia and controls.
methodsWe provided a comprehensive assessment of different aspects of pragmatic performance, i.e. linguistic, extralinguistic, paralinguistic, contextual and conversational, ToM and cognitive functions, i.e. Executive Functions (EF)-selective attention, planning, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, working memory and speed processing-and general intelligence, in a sample of 32 individuals with schizophrenia and 35 controls.
resultsThe results showed that the BNs classifier discriminated well between patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. The network structure revealed that only pragmatic Linguistic ability directly influenced the classification of patients and controls, while diagnosis determined performance on ToM, Extralinguistic, Paralinguistic, Selective Attention, Planning, Inhibition and Cognitive Flexibility tasks. The model identified pragmatic, ToM and cognitive abilities as three distinct domains independent of one another.
conclusionTaken together, our results confirmed the importance of considering pragmatic linguistic impairment as a core dysfunction in schizophrenia, and demonstrated the potential of applying BNs in investigating the relationship between pragmatic ability and cognition.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.