Reduced Neural Convergence and Reorganized Paranoia-Related Representations During Ambiguous Social Narrative Processing in Schizophrenia

The study examined how patients with schizophrenia process complex social situations compared to healthy individuals. The research included 38 schizophrenia patients and 46 healthy controls who watched ambiguous social narratives during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Schizophrenia patients showed reduced neural convergence in brain regions responsible for social understanding, contextual integration, and salience attribution. Healthy individuals with higher paranoia displayed decreased neural similarity in social-cognitive regions, while schizophrenia patients showed reorganization of paranoia-related representations. The findings indicate that schizophrenia involves impaired ability to construct shared understanding of social reality and altered processing of paranoid thoughts.