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(1) In southern Poland, people with schizophrenia both anticipated and experienced the strongest stigma in the domains of interpersonal relationships and employment. (2) Anticipated stigma, contrary to experienced stigma, shows hardly any correlation with patients' specific socio-demographic and clinical characteristics.

Objectives: The present study aimed to test a hypothetical model where causally linked and ordered cognitive biases, resilience and depressive symptoms serve as mediators of the relationship between early traumatic life events and psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) in the general population of young adults. Methods: Two thousand six hundred and fourteen people (1673 females) took part in the online survey. Participants completed self-report questionnaires measuring exposure to early traumatic life events, PLEs, cognitive biases, resilience and depressive symptoms. Correlation and multiple mediation analyses were performed. Results: All three mediators turned out to be significantly correlated with early trauma, PLEs and with each other. Mediational analysis demonstrated that hypothesized model of causally linked mediators was significant (P ≤ .001) and accounted for 33% (P < .001) of the explained variance in PLEs in comparison to 11% (P ≤ .001) without mediators. Conclusions: First, our results provide evidence for significant associations between early traumatic life events, cognitive biases, depressive symptoms, psychological resilience and PLEs. Second, they indicate significant indirect effects of early trauma exposure on PLEs through a path consisted of cognitive biases, psychological resilience and depressive symptoms that suggest a possible importance of interventions bolstering resilience in young people in order to minimize the severity of depressive and psychotic psychopathology. K E Y W O R D S cognitive biases, depressive symptoms, early trauma, psychotic-like experiences, resilience

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Individuals with schizophrenia exhibit problems with understanding the figurative meaning of language. This study evaluates neural correlates of diminished humor comprehension observed in schizophrenia. The study included chronic schizophrenia (SCH) outpatients (n = 20), and sex, age and education level matched healthy controls (n = 20). The fMRI punchline based humor comprehension task consisted of 60 stories of which 20 had funny, 20 nonsensical and 20 neutral (not funny) punchlines. After the punchlines were presented, the participants were asked to indicate whether the story was comprehensible and how funny it was. Three contrasts were analyzed in both groups reflecting stages of humor processing: abstract vs neutral stories - incongruity detection; funny vs abstract - incongruity resolution and elaboration; and funny vs neutral – complete humor processing. Additionally, parametric modulation analysis was performed using both subjective ratings separately. Between-group comparisons revealed that the SCH subjects had attenuated activation in the right posterior superior temporal gyrus (BA 41) in case of irresolvable incongruity processing of nonsensical puns; in the left dorsomedial middle and superior frontal gyri (BA 8/9) in case of incongruity resolution and elaboration processing of funny puns; and in the interhemispheric dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (BA 24) in case of complete processing of funny puns. Additionally, during comprehensibility ratings the SCH group showed a suppressed activity in the left dorsomedial middle and superior frontal gyri (BA 8/9) and revealed weaker activation during funniness ratings in the left dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (BA 24). Interestingly, these differences in the SCH group were accompanied behaviorally by a protraction of time in both types of rating responses and by indicating funny punchlines less comprehensible. Summarizing, our results indicate neural substrates of humor comprehension processing impairments in schizophrenia, which is accompanied by fronto-temporal hypoactivation.