Intermediate endophenotypes emerge as an important concept in the study of schizophrenia.\r\nAlthough research on phenotypes mainly investigated cognitive, metabolic or\r\nneurophysiological markers so far, some authors also examined the motor behavior anomalies\r\nas a potential trait-marker of the disease. However, no research has investigated social\r\nmotor coordination despite the possible importance of its anomalies in schizophrenia. The\r\naim of this study was thus to determine whether coordination modifications previously\r\ndemonstrated in schizophrenia are trait-markers that might be associated with the risk for\r\nthis pathology. Interpersonal motor coordination in 27 unaffected first-degree relatives of\r\nschizophrenia patients and 27 healthy controls was assessed using a hand-held pendulum\r\ntask to examine the presence of interpersonal coordination impairments in individuals at\r\nrisk for the disorder. Measures of neurologic soft signs, clinical variables and neurocognitive\r\nfunctions were collected to assess the cognitive and clinical correlates of social\r\ncoordination impairments in at-risk relatives. After controlling for potential confounding variables,\r\nunaffected relatives of schizophrenia patients had impaired intentional interpersonal\r\ncoordination compared to healthy controls while unintentional interpersonal coordination\r\nwas preserved. More specifically, in intentional coordination, the unaffected relatives of\r\nschizophrenia patients exhibited coordination patterns that had greater variability and in\r\nwhich relatives did not lead the coordination. These results show that unaffected relatives\r\nof schizophrenia patients, like the patients themselves, also present deficits in intentional\r\ninterpersonal coordination. For the first time, these results suggest that intentional interpersonal\r\ncoordination impairments might be a potential motor intermediate endophenotype\r\nof schizophrenia opening new perspectives for early diagnosis.
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