Environmental dependency phenomena in schizophrenia: a pilot study

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Environmental dependency phenomena refer to the enslavement of patients’ performances under the characteristics of the tasks and were first described in case of prefrontal lobe damage. Two forms of environmental dependency, executive and social, may be dissociated, which involve respectively dorsolateral and orbital prefrontal cortex (PFC) dysfunction. Schizophrenia is widely considered to be caused by PFC dysfunction, but no study to date has addressed environmental dependency in this pathology.Methods: We compared patients (N = 17) and healthy controls (N = 28) on a task dedicated to the study of environmental dependency.Results: Our results demonstrate the presence of environmental dependency in schizophrenia. Each form of environmental dependency can be highlighted independently, as previously demonstrated by studies with prefrontal patients.Conclusions: These findings suggest specific prefrontal dysfunction for each subgroup of patients and demonstrate a dissociation between soc...