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Contribution title	3037 - The role of higher order cognitive processes in the relationship between schizotypy and basic symptoms signalling risk for psychosis.
Contribution code	PS02-68 (P)
Authors	Elodie Toffel Developmental Clinical Psychology Unit, Faculty of Psychology, University of Geneva Presenter Deborah Badoud University of Geneva Larisa Morosan University of Geneva Chantal Michel University of Bern Frauke Schultze-Lutter University Hospital Bern Martin Debbané Université de Genève Faculté de psychologie et des sciences de l'éducation
Form of presentation	Poster
Topic	Psychosis
Abstract	The current study aims to investigate the interplay of two risk markers of psychosis, the state variable of basic symptoms (i.e self-experienced subclinical disturbances such as derealization or thought disturbances) and the degree of schizotypal personality traits, with two higher order cognitive processes (HOC), namely mentalization (i.e the capacity to infer the mental states driving self and other’s actions) and metacognitive beliefs (i.e beliefs about one’s own thought processes). Seventy subjects (32 males, aged 14 to 23 (M=19.21, SD=2.11)) underwent the Child and Youth version of the Schizophrenia Proneness Interview (SPI-CY), specifically targeting perceptive and cognitive basic symptoms (COPER and COGDIS). They further filled in three self-report scales: the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ), the Reflective Function Questionnaire (RFQ) and the Metacognitive Beliefs Questionnaire (MCQ). Correlations corrected for multiple comparisons and path analyses were conducted for the evaluation of direct and indirect relationships between our variables, using 10000 bootstrap samples. Our results first yield a positive relationship between SPQ total score and COGDIS high score in frequency (p<.02). They further demonstrated a positive correlation between the SPQ total score and mentalization abilities (certainty about mental states, p<.02; uncertainty about mental states, p<.02) as well as between COGDIS high score and mentalization abilities (certainty p<.02 ; uncertainty p<.02). Meditation analyses revealed a significant indirect effect of certainty about mental states (a=-0.149, p=.002) on the relationship between the level of schizotypal traits and COGDIS higher frequency. Our results provide a preliminary glance at the relationships between trait, state and HOC in psychosis-proneness. Mentalization appears as a potential mediator of the significant relationship between basic symptoms and schizotypal traits. Thus, the interplay between schizotypal traits and mentalization may be valuable clinical indicators in the risk assessment for psychosis development. Longitudinal samples are required to understand the nature of the developmental interplay leading to the emergence of psychosis.