As unbelievable as it sounds, 95% or more of our communication with others is non-verbal. The perception and correct understanding of body language is extremely important to successful social communication.
If you have ever known or interacted with someone with Schizophrenia, you know how that schizophrenics are not very social and can be socially inappropriate.
One reason for this social difficulty has been discovered by a recent study at the University of Iowa. Researchers there found that people with schizophrenia, even those who have mild to moderate symptoms and take medications, do not read or respond to body language.
Apparently, the inability to perceive body language also appears unrelated to a person's level of intelligence. "Many people with schizophrenia, including those who are very bright, remain awkward in social situations," one researcher said.
Using a test involving film clips of people expressing emotion in non-verbal ways, the researchers found that patients with schizophrenia cannot comprehend the extra information conveyed by the human face, or understand common socially relevant stimuli that are not conveyed by facial expression.
Whether people with schizophrenia can learn to perceive body posture and other social clues has not been studied in detail.
The study results appear in the April 2006 issue of the journal Schizophrenia Research.
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