Body Movement Imitation and Perspective Perception Among Psychiatric Patients

The ability to understand the other's perspective and respond accordingly is the most important normal process of daily social life and is probably one of the foundations of human existence. This capability is reflected, inter alia, as an imitation - an important and effective form of learning which is very developed in humans. When we are required to imitate a particular movement, speed of response depends on the perspective of the movement. Imitative response is implemented faster when the movement is observed from first-person perspective, than if the motion is presented from the perspective of a third party.

While healthy individuals don't find it difficult to imitate, or to understand the other's emotion expression, there are psychiatric populations (such as autism and schizophrenia) who find it difficult to demonstrate these capabilities (Park, Matthews et al. 2008). Beyond these capabilities impairment, schizophrenic patients have difficulty distinguishing between their arm movements and those of a foreign hand and find it difficult to leave the boundaries of egocentric interpretation of reality and adopt the other's point of view. These behavioral disorders arise from defects in the network of mirror neurons (Buccino and Amore 2008; Langdon, Coltheart et al. 2010).

Therefore, the investigator expect that schizophrenic patients will not see a preference for movements that will be displayed in first-person perspective from the same movements that will be displayed from the perspective of a third party. Consequently, the investigator speculate that these subjects will not exhibit differences at imitating the response of which will be presented from different perspectives (Jackson, Meltzoff et (al. 2006.

Study Overview

• Status: Unknown
• Conditions: Depression; Schizophrenia
• Intervention / Treatment: Device: imitation assessment using the 5-dt "data glove".

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 60
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Israel
  • Hod hasharon, Israel
    • Shalvata MHC

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 20 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Men and women aged 20-65.
2. Subjects who met the criteria for diagnosis of major DSM-IV for schizophrenia or unipolar depression.
3. Subjects with normal or corrected vision.
4. Subjects who sign informed consent for their participation in the experiment

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Patients with acute disorder, or an unstable patient. Especially neurological disorders or head injuries.
2. Drug Abuse in the past year.
3. Lack of jurisdiction, such as people with mental retardation or dementia.
4. assessed with high suicide risk.
5. patients which are Compulsory hospitalized.
6. Pregnant women

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Diagnostic
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: depresive patients; 30 patients suffering from depression	Device: imitation assessment using the 5-dt "data glove".; measuring the speed of the hand during imitation
Experimental: Schizophrenia patients; 30 Schizophrenia patients	Device: imitation assessment using the 5-dt "data glove".; measuring the speed of the hand during imitation

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
speed of hand movement according to the reaction glove	30 minutes

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Shalvata Mental Health Center

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: March 1, 2012
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): December 1, 2012
• Study Completion (Anticipated): December 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 14, 2011
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 16, 2011
• First Posted (Estimate): June 17, 2011

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): January 2, 2012
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 29, 2011
• Last Verified: December 1, 2011

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders; Schizophrenia
• Other Study ID Numbers: SHA-07-11