Social difficulties in psychopathology may be associated with disrupted thoughts and language

Language is more than just a means of communication; it is an insight into people’s thoughts. In social situations, we need to constantly make judgements on which thoughts to voice and which to inhibit, and difficulties in this ability has been linked to mental health problems, such as psychosis.

This study, published in Nature Mental Health looked at the relationship between control of thoughts and expressed language in 1,000 people who differed across dimensions of self-reported communication difficulties and psychiatric traits.

To explore expressed language and how it relates to communication difficulties, participants were asked to retell both a known fairytale (Cinderella) as well as describe the daily routine of the average person.

They found that those who scored high for traits of eccentricity (feeling different or removed from others) showed atypical language, whereby storylines were more likely to veer off on tangents. Storylines were also less coherent, with reduced semantic similarity between consecutive words.

To investigate this underlying incoherence, researchers asked participants to produce free associations to colours, observing that those who scored high for eccentricity reported rarer and more unique associations. They also used computational modelling to test whether these unique associations reflect different thought processes, or a difference in how people choose which thoughts to voice and which to inhibit.

They found evidence of under and over-regulated thinking linked to psychopathological measures. Those who described themselves as eccentric or feeling different from others often exhibited under-regulated thinking, leading to more incoherent speech. Whereas those who reported high levels of suspiciousness or distrust towards others showed signs of atypical associative thinking, however, they tended to conceal such thoughts and therefore they were not evident in their language.

Speaking about the study, lead author, Dr Isaac Fradkin, Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research in the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology said: “Language is inherently social, and communication depends on an ability to maintain and convey shared meaning. Many mental health problems involve an experience of social difficulties and even isolation, yet little is known about how such difficulties are related to alterations in communication. We found evidence for distinct alterations in language and the meaning it is meant to convey in specific psychopathological dimensions that involve different forms of difficulties in social connection.  

“This research shows a need to broaden the research of communication difficulties to study how social contexts shape individuals' internal thought processes, paving the way for developing personalised interventions that address social exclusion, communication difficulties, and mental health challenges in tandem.”

Related:

• The research paper in Nature Mental Health
• The Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research
• UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology

Image credit: Google DeepMind on Pexels.