Objective Embodied emotions arise from interoceptive and somatosensory processes, and are essential to the development of a stable sense of self. Emotional embodiment is therefore inherently interwoven with our sense of bodily self-awareness, and allows us to navigate complex social situations. Given that the core feature of schizophrenia (SZ) is characterized by the presence of bodily self-disturbances and social-emotional deficits, we hypothesized that embodiment of emotion would be disrupted in SZ. Method Twenty-six medicated individuals with SZ and 26 demographically matched controls used a computerized topographical mapping tool (“EmBODY”) to indicate on a body outline where they felt bodily sensations while experiencing an emotion. There were 13 different emotions plus a neutral state. The resulting bodily maps of emotions were quantitatively compared between groups using linear discriminant analysis and similarity scores. Results Bodily maps of emotions were anomalous in SZ as indicated by indistinguishable maps across different emotions. Relative to the control group, patients reported less discrete and less clear bodily sensations across emotions. In particular, bodily maps for low-arousal emotions were atypical in comparison with healthy controls. Conclusions Anomalous and undifferentiated mapping of embodied emotions in SZ could lead to deficits in linking bodily sensations to conceptual categories of emotions. Disrupted emotional embodiment could also contribute to poor social functioning. Abnormal bodily sensations of emotions might therefore be a promising target for future psychosocial interventions.

Social impairment is a core feature of schizophrenia that presents a major barrier toward recovery. Some of the psychotic symptoms are partly ameliorated by medication but the route to recovery is hampered by social impairments. Since existing social skills interventions tend to suffer from lack of availability, high-burden and low adherence, there is a dire need for an effective, alternative strategy. The present study examined the feasibility and acceptability of Multimodal Adaptive Social Intervention in Virtual Reality (MASI-VR) for improving social functioning and clinical outcomes in schizophrenia. Out of eighteen patients with schizophrenia who enrolled, seventeen participants completed the pre-treatment assessment and 10 sessions of MASI-VR, but one patient did not complete the post-treatment assessments. Therefore, the complete training plus pre- and post-treatment assessment data are available from sixteen participants. Clinical ratings of symptom severity were obtained at pre- and post-training. Retention rates were very high and training was rated as extremely satisfactory for the majority of participants. Participants exhibited a significant reduction in overall clinical symptoms, especially negative symptoms following 10 sessions of MASI-VR. These preliminary results support the feasibility and acceptability of a novel virtual reality social skills training program for individuals with schizophrenia.

Though bodily self-disturbances are well documented in schizophrenia, interoceptive functioning (i.e., the perception of the internal state of the body) remains poorly understood in this population. In fact, only two studies to date have empirically measured interoceptive ability in schizophrenia. Both studies documented a deficit in interoceptive accuracy (i.e., objective performance on a heartbeat detection task), and one noted differences in interoceptive sensibility (i.e., subjective experience of interoception) in this population. To our knowledge, interoceptive awareness (i.e., metacognitive awareness of one's interoceptive ability) has never been measured in schizophrenia and the link between interoceptive functioning and schizotypy remains unexplored.The present study addresses this gap by investigating the three dimensions of interoception in individuals with schizophrenia and matched controls (Experiment 1, N=58) and in relation to schizotypal traits (Experiment 2, N=109).Consistent with the literature, Experiment 1 documented a deficit in interoceptive accuracy and differences in interoceptive sensibility in individuals with schizophrenia. For the first time, our study revealed intact interoceptive awareness in individuals with schizophrenia.Against our expectations, we found no link between schizotypy and interoceptive functioning in Experiment 2.Our novel findings bear important clinical implications as insight into one's interoceptive limitations (i.e., intact interoceptive awareness) might promote treatment seeking behavior in schizophrenia. The lack of association between interoceptive ability and schizotypy in non-helpseeking youths suggests that changes in interoception may only arise with the onset of psychosis.

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