In this new paper published in Schizophrenia Bulletin we investigated if agency deficits are precursor or a result of psychosis? Here we investigated SoA in a cohort of 22q11 deletion syndrome participants who have a genetic propensity for schizophrenia and matched controls. In 2 experiments employing full body virtual reality, we investigated SoA by introducing sensorimotor conflicts. Our results revealed that 22q11DS participants had a considerable deficit in monitoring their actions, compared to controls in both the temporal and spatial domain. This was coupled with a bias toward erroneous attribution of actions to the self.  Thus 22q11DS showed a domain general deficit in SoA. This abnormality of SoA in a cohort with a genetic predisposition for schizophrenia, but no current psychosis, provides evidence that deficits in delineation of the self may be a precursor rather than a result of the psychotic state.

Roy Salomon, Oliver Alan Kannape, Henrique Galvan Debarba, Mariia Kaliuzhna, Maude Schneider, Nathan Faivre, Stephan Eliez, Olaf Blanke, Agency Deficits in a Human Genetic Model of Schizophrenia: Insights From 22q11DS Patients, Schizophrenia Bulletin, 2021;, sbab143, https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbab143