How brain stimulation could help social skills

Imagine trying to understand what someone is feeling, but your brain just cannot quite figure it out. For many people with schizophrenia, this is a daily challenge. Schizophrenia is a condition that affects about 1 in 100 people around the world. Besides the well-known symptoms like hearing voices or having confusing thoughts, many people with this illness also struggle with social cognition. That means they have trouble understanding social cues, like facial expressions or the tone of someone’s voice, making it hard to connect with others and navigate daily life.

What is social cognition and why does it matter?

Social cognition is the mental skill set we use to recognize emotions, read social situations, and figure out what others might be thinking or feeling. It has four key parts: social perception (noticing facial expressions or gestures), theory of mind (imagining what someone else might believe), emotion processing (knowing if someone is happy or sad), and attributional style (deciding why things happen to us or others). In schizophrenia, these skills often do not work as well, making everyday interactions difficult. Research has shown that problems with social cognition can have an even bigger impact on life than other thinking challenges, like memory or attention (see this meta-analysis).

What are neuromodulation techniques?

Because regular treatments like medication and therapy do not always help with social cognition, scientists are exploring new ideas. One of these is called neuromodulation. Neuromodulation is a fancy word for ways to gently stimulate parts of the brain to help them work better. There are several methods, but the most common ones for schizophrenia include transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), transcranial electrical stimulation (tES), and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). These methods send harmless magnetic or electrical pulses to certain brain areas, hoping to boost the connections that help with social thinking. Think of it as giving your brain a little nudge in the right direction.

Do these methods work?

A recent systematic review (read the full study here) looked at thirteen research studies where adults with schizophrenia received different types of neuromodulation. Some received TMS, some had tES, and a few had ECT. The scientists wanted to see if these brain stimulation techniques could help people recognize faces, understand emotions, or better follow social situations. The results were hopeful, but also a bit mixed. About half of the studies showed improvements in at least one part of social cognition, like recognizing facial expressions or understanding what someone else might be thinking. For example, repetitive TMS (rTMS) over a brain area called the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex helped some people get better at reading facial emotions (see this study). Another study using a specific TMS protocol called theta burst stimulation also found improvements in recognizing emotions and understanding intentions (details here). Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a type of tES, sometimes helped with emotion recognition or theory of mind, but the effects were not always consistent.

What about safety?

It’s important to know that these brain stimulation methods were generally very well tolerated. Most people did not have major side effects, and only a couple of participants dropped out of studies because the stimulation felt uncomfortable (see safety guidelines). This is good news for anyone hoping for new treatments that do not add extra health risks.

Why are these findings important for daily life?

Improving social skills can make a big difference in how people with schizophrenia manage at work, school, or with family and friends. Being able to read someone’s mood or intentions helps with making friends, keeping jobs, and feeling less lonely. Scientists hope that with more research, brain stimulation techniques could become a helpful tool alongside other therapies.

If you are interested in how science is tackling other tricky health problems, you might enjoy reading about how rare diseases like VEXAS syndrome fool the immune system (learn more here) or why building muscle power as you age can help you live longer and healthier (read about muscle power). SlothMD keeps you up to date on the latest advances and tips from the world of health AI and scientific research.

What does the future hold?

While these early results are promising, scientists say we need more studies with bigger groups and better ways to measure improvement. Each person with schizophrenia is unique, so future research will need to figure out which methods work best for which people. Still, these brain stimulation techniques open the door to new hope for improving social skills and making life a little easier for people living with schizophrenia.