between groups for the variables "interesting," t(38)=7.78p<.001; "hate-friendship," t(29.19)=7.20 p<.001; "fears theother," t(31.87)=5.70, p< .001; "affection," t(27.10)=–7.72,p< .001; and "hatred," t(10.23)=32.60, p< .001.Discussion: The ToM capacity appears to be lacking in the SCZpatients. The problem understanding the issue of someone else'smental state also means that SCZ patients do not find this story veryinteresting. Simply reading a 20-page novella, became a cognitivetask, with a good ecological component.

doi:10.1016/j.schres.2010.02.824

Poster 64A SELF ADMINISTERED "ECOLOGICAL" QUESTIONNAIRE (BRIEF-A)PROVIDES A SENSITIVE MEASURE OF EXECUTIVE DEFICITS INSCHIZOPHRENIC SUBJECTS

Ewa Bulzacka1,2,3,4, Jeanne Vilain1,2,3,4, Franck Schürhoff1,2,3,4,Alexandre Méary1,2,3,4, Marion Leboyer1,2,3,4, Andrei Szöke1,2,3,41AP-HP, GHU « Chenevier-Mondor », Pôle de Psychiatrie, Creteil, France;2INSERMUnité 955, Equipe 15 Creteil, France; 3Université Paris 12, Facultéde Médecine, IFR10 Creteil, France; 4Fondation FondaMental Creteil,France

Background: Cognitive deficits are considered core symptoms ofschizophrenia and have been found to correlate with the functionaloutcome. Executive functions are among the most impairedcognitive domains. Cognitive characteristics are usually measuredwith neuro-cognitive tests (objective tasks) or cognition question-naires. In schizophrenic patients cognition questionnaires havebeen seldom used and have been often considered to be lesssensitive to the deficits of these patients. However, objective taskshave also limitations such as: practice effect, low test-retestreliability, administration time and, most of all, lack of ecologicalrelevance (i.e. unrelated to subjects' everyday functioning). Forthese reasons, the use of complementary measures has beenadvocated Niendam et al. (2007) found that the Behavioral RatingInventory of Executive Functioning (BRIEF - a questionnaire thatassesses daily living behaviours associated with executive dysfunc-tion) was, in its informant form, sensitive to deficits seen inadolescents at risk for psychosis. The aim of the present study is toinvestigate the ability of the self administered form of the BRIEF-A(A standing for adult version) to identify executive deficits inpatients with schizophrenia.Methods: Subjects: The BRIEF-A has been administered to 31ambulatory schizophrenic subjects and 34 controls. Schizophrenicsubjects were in full or partial remission for at least one month.Clinical assessment: We used the DIGS (Diagnostic Interview forGenetic Studies) to confirm diagnosis in patients and absence ofany, past or present, DSM IV axis I diagnosis in controls. Inschizophrenic subject, we assessed clinical symptoms with theSSPI (Signs and Symptoms of Psychotic Illness) scale. Statisticalmethods: To calculate the group effect on BRIEF-A scores, weused Hedges unbiased estimator of the standardized meandifference (gU).Results: Compared to controls, subjects with schizophreniashowed statistically significant impairments for the globalscore (Global Executive Composite) and every domain specificscore. The most impaired domain was "Initiation" (estimated groupeffect of 2.28, 95% CI 1.65-2.90) and the less impaired"Self Monitoring" (estimated group effect of 1.03, 95% CI 0.50-1.54).Discussion: The differences observed are comparable with (orgreater than) the differences reported in similar studies usingobjective tasks of executive functions (range of the estimated

effect 0.8 to 1.0) or other cognitive functions (0.52 to 1.57)(Dickinson et al., 2007). Thus, our findings show that a selfreport instrument could provide sensitive measures of executivedeficits in subjects with schizophrenia. This type of measuresmight be a useful addition to objective measures because itallows to explore different aspects of cognition and to overcomesome of the limitations of the objective tasks. Further researchis needed to address limitations of this study (e.g. relativelysmall sample sizes) and to explore relationship between thesubjective and objective measures of executive functions inschizophrenic subjects.

References

Dickinson, D., Ramsey, M.E., Gold, J.M., 2007. Overlooking the obvious: ameta-analytic comparison of digit symbol coding tasks and other cognitivemeasures in schizophrenia. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 64 (5), 532–542.Niendam, T.A., Horwitz, J., Bearden, C.E., Cannon, T.D., 2007. Ecologicalassessment of executive dysfunction in the psychosis prodrome: a pilotstudy. Schizophr. Res. 93 (1–3), 350–354.

doi:10.1016/j.schres.2010.02.825

Poster 65SOCIAL COGNITION IN "ULTRA HIGH RISK" (PUTATIVELYPRODROMAL) AND FIRST EPISODE PSYCHOSIS COHORTS:PRELIMINARY FINDINGS ON DEGREE OF IMPAIRMENT

Andrew Thompson1,2, Cali Bartholomeusz2,3, Alicia Papas2,Barnaby Nelson1,2, Stephen Wood2,3, Alison R. Yung1,21Orygen Youth Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; 2OrygenResearch Centre, Centre for Youth Mental Health Melbourne, Victoria,Australia; 3Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, University of Melbourne,Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Background: Social cognitive skills have been shown to beimpaired in those individuals with schizophrenia and in firstepisode psychosis (FEP) (Bertrand et al., 2007). Particular socialcognition skills such as Theory of Mind (ToM) also appear to beimpaired in individuals deemed at particular high risk fordeveloping psychosis (Chung et al., 2008) but the degree ofimpairment relative to FEP has not been investigated. Neitherhas the performance on multiple domains of social cognition in"at risk" groups. We aimed to investigate two well establisheddomains of social cognition in FEP and an "at risk" for psychosisgroup compared to healthy controls.Methods: An established clinically "at risk" for psychosispopulation (known as "Ultra High Risk" or UHR) and FEPpatients were recruited from a youth mental health service inMelbourne; healthy controls from the general communitywithin the service catchment area. Two domains of socialcognition were assessed in the three groups. ToM was assessedusing the Hinting Task and emotion recognition (for both facesand voices) using the adult version of the Diagnostic Assess-ment of Non Verbal Accuracy (DANVA2). We also measuredsocial functioning, neuropsychological abilities and psycho-pathology. We analysed the differences in the groups usingAnalysis of Variance (ANOVA) and a general linear model withIQ as a covariate in the analysis.Results: We have currently recruited 20 UHR, 39 FEP patientsand 21 controls to the study. Preliminary analysis shows thatToM performance as assessed by the hinting task is significantlyworse in FEP than controls, with UHR's having an intermediatedegree of impairment (mean score: FEP 15.9, UHR 16.9, controls

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17.8, F=3.97, p=0.02). Emotion recogntion for faces but notvoices was significant worse in FEP's than controls. This wasespecially the case for negative emotions such as anger andfear. Again the degree of impairment for UHR's was inter-mediate to that of FEP. The results for both social cognitiondomains were strengthened when IQ was included as acovariate in the analysis.Discussion: This study is still recruiting but preliminaryanalysis suggest that impairment in both ToM and emotionrecognition (especially for faces) is intermediate for UHRpatients compared to FEP. This suggests that impairments inthese abilities may be present and important in those at risk fordeveloping psychosis. Future research should continue toinvestigate whether deficits in social cognition are indeedvulnerability markers for psychosis, which domains of socialcognition are especially affected, and how this might informnovel early intervention strategies.

doi:10.1016/j.schres.2010.02.826

Poster 66FIRST-RANK (PASSIVITY) SYMPTOMS: NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL ANDNEUROPHYSIOLOGICALPERFORMANCE,ANDSOCIALFUNCTIONING

F. Waters, A. JablenskyCentre for Clinical Research in Neuropsychiatry, University of WesternAustralia Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Background: First-rank (passivity) symptoms describe a loss ofclear boundaries between the self and others, or the perceptionthat one's thoughts and actions are "made" or controlled byothers. Contemporary neuropsychiatric models propose thatpassivity symptoms result from deficits in internal forwardmodel representations, although it is becoming clear thatforward model mechanisms do not have unique access torepresentations about the self. Here, we present new empiricalevidence from our group in which we conducted neurocogni-tive and neurophysiological assessments of patients withpassivity symptoms, and an investigation into their socialfunctioning.Methods: 32 patients with, and 48 patients without, passivitysymptoms took part in our studies, which included a neuropsycho-logical test battery, a neurophysiological examination (with anti-saccade eye-movement paradigm, P300 and P50), and a test of timeperception requiring judgments of time intervals. A separate groupof first-episode patients (n=90 with passivity, and 137 with nopassivity symptoms) was assessed on the Psychological Impair-ments Rating Schedule to examine patients' non-verbal interactionskills.Results: The results show that passivity symptoms were notassociated with greater cognitive impairments suggesting thatthey do not arise because of compromised intellect. The neurophy-siological investigations showed that patients with passivity wereimpaired on the P300 and self-correction measures on theantisaccade task, consistent with the proposal of deficits insensory-motor monitoring and updating processes. Results alsoshowed that deficits in time perception can partly explain self-monitoring deficits and the breakdown in relations betweenactions and their effects. Finally, passivity symptoms wereassociated with disturbances in nonverbal communicative beha-viours, consistent with the idea that the sense of body is tied tosocial behaviours.Discussion: Overall, the evidence is partly, but not fully, consistentwith the prevailing view that passivity symptoms occur because of

deficits in forward model mechanisms. We present a criticalappraisal of the literature which evaluates the role of bodyrepresentations for differentiating between the self and others,and we argue that passivity symptoms arise because of broaddeficits in sensory-motor body representations which lead topivotal disturbances in body is experienced.

doi:10.1016/j.schres.2010.02.827

Poster 67BIAS OR DEFICIT? DIFFERENCES IN IQ AND INSIGHT IN FIRSTEPISODE PSYCHOSIS PATIENTS WHO DEMONSTRATE A 'JUMPINGTO CONCLUSIONS' RESPONSE ON THE BEADS TASK

Ben Wiffen, M. Aurora Falcone, Jennifer O'Connor, Manuela Russo,Robin Murray, Anthony DavidInstitute of Psychiatry Denmark Hill, London, United Kingdom

Background: Psychotic patients consistently demonstrate'jumping to conclusions' (JTC) on a cognitive task comparedto matched controls. This study aimed to examine thisphenomenon in first-episode psychosis patients and controls,and assess whether those who show the bias have worse IQ,clinical and cognitive insight.Methods: The study used a case-control design to assess differencesin reasoning, IQ and cognitive insight between patients andcontrols. Differences in clinical insight in patients with and withoutJTC were also assessed. First-presentation psychotic patients(N=62) were recruited to the Genetics and Psychosis (GAP)study. A healthy comparison group (N=57) was recruited fromthe same area. The beads task (JTC) was administered. Subjectscompleted the Beck Cognitive Insight Scale and a neuropsycholo-gical battery. Patients were assessed with the clinician-ratedSchedule for the Assessment of Insight. Chi-squared tests,independent samples t-tests and binomial logistic regressionwere used in analysis.Results: Patients demonstrated more JTC responses thancontrols (45.2% vs. 24.6%, p=0.019). Patients and controlswho showed JTC bias had lower IQ (p<0.001), but notcognitive insight. Patients who showed JTC bias had lower'recognition of illness' (p=0.037). Binary logistic regressionsuggested that IQ predicts whether subjects would show JTCbetter than case-control status.Discussion: JTC bias is linked to several other 'deficits'. Specificallythey show lower IQ and clinical insight. IQ is the best predictor ofshowing JTC bias. Further work should investigate which specificcognitive domains are linked to JTC, and whether these overlapwith deficits seen with clinical insight.

doi:10.1016/j.schres.2010.02.828

Poster 68MISATTRIBUTING SPEECH AND JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS: APROSPECTIVE STUDY OF COGNITIVE BIASES AND OUTCOME INPEOPLE WITH PRODROMAL SIGNS OF PSYCHOSIS

Toby T. Winton-Brown1, Louise C. Johns1, Matthew R. Broome1,2,Paul Allen1, Isabel Valli1, Philippa A Garety3, Philip K. McGuire11Psychosis Clinical Academic Group, Institute of Psychiatry, King'sCollege London, UK; 2Health Sciences Research Institute, WarwickMedical School, University of Warwick, Warwick, Coventry, UK;3National Institute of Health Research, affiliated to the Biomedical

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