Disorders of Social Motor Coordination in Schizophrenia

Manuel Varlet¹, Ludovic Marin¹, Stephane Raffard^2,3, Richard C. Schmidt⁴, Delphine Capdevielle^3,5, Jean-Philippe Boulenger³, Jonathan Del-Monte^1,2 and Benoit G. Bardy¹

¹ Movement to Health Laboratory, EuroMov, Montpellier-1 University, Montpellier, France,
² Epsylon Laboratory Dynamic of Human Abilities & Health Behaviors, University of Montpellier & St-Etienne, France,
³ University Department of Adult Psychiatry, Hôpital de la Colombière, CHU Montpellier, Montpellier-1 University, France,
⁴ Psychology Department, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA, USA,
⁵ INSERM U-1061, Montpellier, France.
E-mail: manuel.varlet@gmail.com

Abstract

Even if schizophrenia is known to affect social interaction, reasons of such impairment remain unclear. Social motor coordination has been suggested as being an important embodiment of healthy social exchanges. Therefore, we examined whether social motor coordination is affected by schizophrenia. Investigating patients unintentionally and intentionally coordinated with control participants, we found that schizophrenia decreased intentional but not unintentional coordination. A model is proposed to describe and understand such impairments.