S235. COGNITION AND SOCIAL BEHAVIORS IN SPORTS FOR PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA ENGAGED IN SPORTS HABITS
Authors: Yoshihara Yujiro , Fujii Keisuke , Murai Toshiya , Takahashi Hidehiko 
Published: May 2020

Background

Several studies have reported that team sports are effective for maintaining and improving mental health among patients with schizophrenia. Social behavior, such as adjusting an individual’s motion while reading others’ intentions and predicting others’ motion in team sports, is considered to improve related cognitive characteristics. However, the quantitative evaluation of social behaviors during sports, and the cognitive characteristics of patients with schizophrenia engaging in team sports habits remain unclear. In this study, we aimed to clarify these behaviors and cognitions quantitatively.

Methods

Twelve male patients with schizophrenia and 15 male healthy controls with experience playing football participated in this study. We used a 3-vs-1 ball possession task. Three-dimensional coordinates of the landmark points were acquired using a 3D optical motion capture system with 16 cameras (OptiTrack, USA). First, we evaluated group coordination in a previous study using three inner angles of the three attackers’ triangle. Second, we computed four variables for evaluating individual performance: pass-miss rate, pass angle, angular displacement, and additional distance. Third, we used a slalom dribble test to evaluate individual football skill. Meanwhile, we used three cognitive tasks: the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure test (ROCFT), Trail Making Test A and B (TMT), as well as RTI (reaction time), IED (intra-extra dimensional set shift) and SWM (spatial working memory) in the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB). For statistical analysis, we used the Mann-Whitney U-test to compare the variables between groups. We used Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient between the variables in 3-vs-1 and cognitive tasks. In addition, we conducted partial correlation analysis between these variables using recent football experience per month and duration of illness as covariates.

Results

In group coordination during the 3-vs-1 task, the patient group exhibited a slightly wider distribution in the contour plots in the phase plane than the control group. Next, in individual performance in motor tasks, the angular displacement in patients with schizophrenia was significantly smaller than that in the control group (p = 0.043, r = −0.39). Meanwhile, there were no significant differences in the slalom test, pass-miss rate, pass angle, and additional distances (p &gt; 0.05). For cognitive tasks, the reproduction scores of ROCFT after 3-min and 30-min in patients with schizophrenia were significantly smaller than those in the control group (p &lt; 0.006, r &lt; −0.53). Patients’ scores on the TMT (A and B) were significantly lower than those in the control group (p &lt; 0.004, r &lt; −0.56). In RTI on the CANTAB, five-choice reaction time and movement time in the patients were longer than those in the control group (p &lt; 0.049, r &gt; 0.37). Meanwhile, other characteristics were not significantly different between the two groups. In the correlation between 3-vs-1 variables and cognitive test performance, EDS errors in CANTAB IED and TMT A were negatively correlated with the pass angle (ρ = −0.62, p = 0.031 and ρ = −0.64, p = 0.026) in patients with schizophrenia. Additionally, the partial correlation in patients revealed that the negative partial correlation between EDS error in CANTAB IED and pass angle remained significant (ρ = −0.64, p = 0.046).

Discussion

The current results demonstrated that patients were not impaired in most domains of cognition and social behavior in the tasks. However, other types of cognition and social behavior for patients with schizophrenia and team sports habits were still likely to be impaired.