Neuropsychological performance and positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia.

Examined cognitive functions in 11 positive-symptom (mean age 36 yrs), 10 negative-symptom (mean age 33.8 yrs), and 23 mixed-symptom (mean age 31.4 yrs) schizophrenics; 15 bipolar patients (mean age 34.7 yrs); and 12 normal controls (mean age 34.8 yrs) to explore the relation between symptoms and performance. Ss were administered a neuropsychological test battery including the Purdue Pegboard, the Revised Visual Retention Test, and the Block Design subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised (WAIS—R). Group comparisons revealed generalized deficits in schizophrenics. Positive-symptom schizophrenics scored below normal Ss and negative-symptom Ss on 2 measures tapping verbal memory. Multiple regression analyses revealed that negative symptom ratings were inversely associated with performance on visual-motor tasks, whereas positive symptoms were inversely associated with verbal memory performance. Findings are not consistent with the notion that cognitive deficits are uniquely associated with negative symptoms. Instead, results suggest that there may be specific cognitive correlates of both the positive and negative symptom dimensions. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Representational boundaries in role portrayals among paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenic patients.

Studied the boundary properties of self and other representations in 31 normal Ss (mean age 18.8 yrs) and in 18 paranoid (mean age 21.2 yrs), 14 intermediate (mean age 21.9 yrs), and 16 nonparanoid (mean age 22.1 yrs) inpatient schizophrenics, using a dramatic role-playing technique. Role test and Rorschach responses were scored for presence of fluid and rigid boundaries between representations of human characters. Paranoid schizophrenics evidenced higher levels of rigid boundaries, nonparanoid schizophrenics had higher levels of fluid boundaries, and normal Ss showed fewer fluid or rigid boundaries. Rorschach and role test measures of boundary disruption were significantly correlated with each other and with other measures of psychopathology. Findings suggest that the relative balance between fluid and rigid representational boundaries is an effective discriminator of paranoid and nonparanoid subtypes and that the presence of either type of boundary imagery discriminates schizophrenics from normal Ss. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Body-image aberration in schizophrenia.

A 28-item true–false scale was constructed to measure schizophrenic body-image aberration. The scale was standardized on both 631 male and 718 female college students and 100 male noncollege normal controls (mean age 31.7 yrs). The 74 male schizophrenic Ss reported more body-image aberration than normal nonstudent Ss, but only a portion of the schizophrenics were deviant. 20 male nonpsychotic clinic clients did not have heightened scores. Correlational findings indicate that schizophrenic body-image aberration is an aspect of a broader perceptual aberration. Scores on body-image aberration were negatively correlated with time since first hospitalization. The Body-Image Aberration Scale had essentially no correlation with the Physical Anhedonia Scale (L. J. Chapman, J. P. Chapman, and M. L. Raulin) for schizophrenics. For nonschizophrenics, however, high scores on the 2 scales accompanied one another significantly less often than expected by chance. It is suggested that the 2 scales may identify alternative manifestations of proneness toward the same schizophrenia. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Serial recall by schizophrenic and affective patients during and after psychotic episodes.

Eight schizophrenics (mean age 27.3 yrs), 8 depressed patients (mean age 33.1 yrs), and 8 normal controls (mean age 27 yrs) completed the MMPI and were asked to recall short word strings in both the presence and absence of distraction. Results show a differential cognitive deficit among schizophrenics both before and after a general improvement in their level of adjustment. That is, despite an overall improvement in their accuracy of recall prior to discharge, their performance continued to be impaired relative to depressed and normal Ss on the words presented in the 1st serial position. A tendency toward greater distractibility among schizophrenics failed to reach statistical significance at both points of assessment. Further substantiation of such stable forms of cognitive impairment may facilitate the identification of individuals who are vulnerable to the development of schizophrenia and may shed light on the adjustment problems that many chronic patients continue to experience after discharge from the hospital. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Creativity and schizophrenia: An equivalence of cognitive processing.

Two tests of creativity were given to 10 paranoid and 10 nonparanoid schizophrenics, 10 nonpsychotic psychiatric controls, and 10 normal Ss. Ss were aged between 18 and 50 yrs. Scores on vocabulary and similarities tests, as well as education, medication, marital status, socioeconomic background, and age, were examined. Results indicate that nonparanoid schizophrenics were significantly more creative than paranoids and psychiatric controls on one creativity measure, a graded level measure of the Alternate Uses Test. Also, nonparanoid schizophrenics produced a significantly higher percentage of "highly creative" responses than did normals. Nonparanoid schizophrenics also scored higher than the other groups on the Welsh Figure Preference Test, but this finding was found to be related to age rather than to schizophrenia. The superior performance of the nonparanoid schizophrenic is discussed in terms of the encouragement that a supportive, nonjudgmental testing environment provides. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Left hemisphere dysfunction and left hemisphere overactivation in schizophrenia.

Reports 2 experiments relating schizophrenia to functional brain asymmetry. In Exp I, 24 schizophrenics (mean age, 30.8 yrs) were compared to 24 matched controls (mean age, 37.3 yrs) on 2 tachistoscopic tasks (Syllable Test and Dot Location Test) designed to measure verbal and spatial information processing in the 2 hemispheres. Unlike the controls, the schizophrenics showed a right hemisphere superiority both on the verbal and on the spatial tests, indicating left hemisphere dysfunction in the initial processing of verbal information. In Exp II, lateral eye movements, as an index of contralateral hemispheric activation, were measured in a group of 24 paranoid schizophrenics (mean age, 28.9 yrs), 24 nonparanoid schizophrenics (mean age, 32.7 yrs), and 24 matched controls (mean age, 31.2 yrs). The eye movements were elicited by presenting the Ss with verbal neutral, verbal emotional, spatial neutral, and spatial emotional questions. The schizophrenics had significantly more rightward eye movement, compared to controls, regardless of question type, indicating left hemisphere overactivation. Results suggest that schizophrenia is associated with a pattern consisting of both left hemisphere dysfunction and overactivation. (63 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuroticism and extraversion in Turner's Syndrome.

Administered the Maudsley Personality Inventory to 5 groups of female Ss: (a) 13 Turner Syndrome Ss (mean age 19 yrs 2 mo) with karyotype 45X, (b) 18 Turner Syndrome (TS) Ss (mean age 26 yrs 11 mo) with other types of sex chromosomal abnormalities, (c) 16 sisters of Ss (mean age 24 yrs 2 mo), (d) 9 Ss with growth retardation and primary amenorrhea (mean age 22 yrs 4 mo), and (e) 19 nurses (mean age 22 yrs 8 mo). The results are compared to English and American normative values. The total group of TS Ss obtained a low Neuroticism (N) score compared to the control groups. When the total group was divided on the basis of their karyotypes, the low N score could be referred solely to Ss with karyotype 45X, who scored significantly lower than any other group tested so far with the MPI. TS Ss with chromosomal abnormalities other than 45X scored within normal limits. No variables other than karyotype 45X were related to an extremely low N score. It is concluded that exceptional emotional stability, as reflected in a very low N score on the MPI, is concomitant with the total absence of one sex chromosome, which is probably due to a developmental abnormality of the CNS. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Residual performance deficit in clinically remitted schizophrenics: A marker of schizophrenia?

The study of remitted schizophrenic outpatients is proposed as a way of minimizing the effects of the "nuisance variables" that confound the study of hospitalized schizophrenics. 20 hospitalized acutely disturbed schizophrenics (mean age, 37.0 yrs), 20 schizophrenic outpatients in clinical remission (mean age, 42.8 yrs) and 20 normal controls (mean age, 35.1 yrs) were administered a span of apprehension test and the Continuous Performance Test (CPT). All Ss were controlled for sex and WAIS scores and schizophrenics were rated with Phillips Prognostic Rating Scale. On the CPT, both acute and remitted schizophrenics made significantly more errors of omission and commission than did the normal controls. On the span of apprehension, both groups of schizophrenics showed a significantly greater decrement in accuracy of detection of the target stimuli than did normal controls. The same pattern of results has been observed in children at risk for schizophrenia, which suggests that the span of apprehension may be sensitive to core schizophrenic processes that are independent of clinical state. The cross-sectional study of the 3 stages of schizophrenia—the premorbid, acute, and remitted—is proposed as a way of identifying "core" schizophrenic processes and markers of vulnerability to schizophrenia. The adequacy of a general "attentional impairment" interpretation of schizophrenic deficit is questioned. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Defective interhemispheric transfer in schizophrenia.

Groups of schizophrenics, nurses, and psychiatric controls were trained to perform a manual shape discrimination task. The 20 schizophrenics included 17 outpatients and 3 short-term inpatients: 10 males (mean age 36 yrs) and 10 females (mean age 37.6 yrs). Nurse control Ss were 10 male (mean age 26.3 yrs) and 10 female (mean age 22 yrs) psychiatric nurses or student nurses. Psychiatric control Ss were 8 males (mean age 36.1 yrs) and 10 females (mean age 32.6 yrs). On both of the tasks included in the experiment, the schizophrenic group, but not the control groups, displayed defective intermanual transfer. The performances of the schizophrenics resembled those previously obtained with split-brain monkeys on similar tasks; therefore, it is concluded that the schizophrenics tested suffered from incomplete transfer of stereognostic shape information from 1 cerebral hemisphere to the other. Experiments suggesting poor interhemispheric transfer on auditory tasks in schizophrenics are discussed along with the possibility that certain schizophrenic symptoms are related to defective interhemispheric communication. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attention-related effects on somatosensory evoked potentials in college students at high risk for psychopathology.

Determined whether a deviation from normal amplitude in the evoked potential in response to attention directed to a stimulus would occur in 10 undergraduates with high scores on a measure of physical anhedonia (AN) and 9 undergraduates with a high score on a measure of perceptual aberration (PA). Ss were compared with 10 control undergraduates and 7 schizophrenics (mean age 25.6 yrs). Previous studies have shown low amplitudes for schizophrenics. Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) were recorded from 5 scalp locations while Ss counted stimuli to 1 of 4 randomly stimulated fingers; SEPs to counted stimuli contained the attention-related late positive wave (P400). P400 amplitudes of AN Ss were lower than those of normal controls, whereas P400 amplitudes of PA Ss and their matched controls did not differ. P400 amplitudes of AN Ss did not differ significantly from those of schizophrenics, although AN means were somewhat higher. P400 amplitude may provide information that is different from the associated behavioral response and a more sensitive indication of central mechanism dysfunction. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Premorbid status in schizophrenia and abstract, literal or autistic proverb interpretation.

Examined the relationship between scores on the Premorbid Adjustment scale of the Phillips Prognostic Rating Scale and responses to the Gorham Proverbs Test scored for correct abstraction, literalness, and autism. Ss were 42 male and 6 female schizophrenics (mean age 34 yrs) who also completed the Vocabulary subscale of the WAIS. As was found in previous studies, there was a significant relationship between the Phillips scale score and scores on correct abstracting ability such that process schizophrenics were less abstract. However, there was no significant relationship between the Phillips scale scores and scores for literalness, even though literalness scores were strongly related to correct abstraction scores. Autism scores were the most strongly related to the Phillips scale scores. It is concluded that process schizophrenics are not more literal than reactives but that the difference in correct abstracting ability is at least in part due to differences in autistic responding such that process schizophrenics tend to give more autistic responses than do reactives. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Speech competence in manic and schizophrenic psychoses: The association between clinically rated thought disorder and cohesion and reference performance.

Compared 20 thought-disordered (TD) manics and schizophrenics (mean age 31 yrs) to 20 manic and schizophrenic patients (mean age 31.25 yrs) without thought disorder (NTD) and to 10 normal Ss (mean age 30.9 yrs) normal on the rating scales of cohesion and reference performance in speech developed by S. R. Rochester and J. R. Martin (1979). TD manics and schizophrenics differed from NTD Ss and the normal group in their more frequent use of unclear references as well as in their less frequent use of effective cohesion and reference strategies. Speech elements of the TD Ss were classified into disordered and nondisordered segments, and the same natural language analysis was completed for each category of speech segments. Nondisordered speech segments of TD Ss were quite similar to the overall speech performance of NTD Ss and the normal group. There were no cohesion or reference performance differences between TD manics and TD schizophrenics in their disordered speech segments. Findings are interpreted as validation of the usefulness of the Rochester and Martin rating system for identifying aspects of speech performance that are related to clinically rated thought disorder. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selective attention in schizophrenic and manic psychoses: The effect of distraction on information processing.

Attempted to identify the general level of cognitive processing that is especially vulnerable to distraction in schizophrenia. The extent and nature of distraction were compared in 12 schizophrenic patients (mean age, 27.8 yrs), 12 manic patients (mean age, 28.2 yrs), and 12 controls (mean age, 26.7 yrs) using neutral and distractor word-span tests. Also, all patients were evaluated by the Nurse's Observation Scale for Inpatient Evaluation, and 10, 11, and 12 controls, schizophrenics, and manics, respectively, completed the MMPI. On one set of tests, serial position curves indicated that in the presence of distraction the overall deterioration in schizophrenics' performance reflected their tendency to forget early, and not late, items in the lists. On a 2nd set of tests, both schizophrenics and manics were abnormally distracted, regardless of the speed of presentation. Although the controls were also somewhat distracted by irrelevant words, their impairment was significantly diminished at slower rates of presentation. With distraction, schizophrenics and manics were less able to use the extra time in slow presentations for active mental operations such as rehearsal. Both groups made more intrusive errors than normal Ss. Results indicate that distraction interferes with schizophrenics' and manics' information processing at some level beyond the comparatively passive stages of recognition and sensory storage. Problems in selective attention seem to be more closely related to thought disorder than to diagnostic categories. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visual motor performance of psychotic children.

Explored visual motor deviations by means of a Childhood Psychosis Scale applied to the Primary Visual-Motor Test protocols of 130 psychotic children (6–12 yrs), and 507 normal and retarded (IQ range 35–79) controls. 45.4% of the psychotic sample achieved critical scores on the scale as compared to 1.7% of the normal Ss and 12.9% of the retarded Ss. It was possible to match 94 of the psychotic children with nonpsychotic controls on the basis of CA and MA. Significantly more psychotics than matched controls were high scorers. Correlations with MA were moderately significant for each group. In IQ comparisons, significantly more psychotics who were retarded had critical scores than did normal-IQ psychotics. Age at diagnosis, type and length of treatment, recency of diagnosis, and degree of organicity did not discriminate between high- and low-responding psychotics. Base rate problems and theoretical aspects of the scale items are discussed. The scale appears useful as a screening device for normal and retarded children under the age of 13 yrs, with particular utility in detecting psychotic aspects of functioning among the retarded. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal abstracting ability and schizophrenia.

The Benjamin Proverbs Test was administered to 3 groups of 40 Ss each: reactive schizophrenics, process schizophrenics, and normal control Ss. Patients were rated for prognosis using the Premorbid subscale of the Phillips Prognostic Rating Scale. Ss were matched for education, vocabulary, age, and socioeconomic status of father. Proverbs were scored by 3 judges working independently. Highly significant differences were found among the 3 groups in ability to interpret proverbs. Process schizophrenics showed the greatest degree of impairment; reactive schizophrenics showed significant impairment, as compared to normal controls, but significantly less impairment than did process schizophrenics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experience-seeking characteristics of methadone clients.

The following scales were administered to 32 clients (mean age 34.09 yrs) of a methadone program and a demographically matched normal control group of 32 Ss (mean age 32.16 yrs): modified version of Pearson's Novelty-Experiencing Scale, her Desire-for-Novelty Scale, and Vando's Reducer-Augmenter Scale. Methadone Ss scored higher than controls on measures reflecting boredom, desire for change, and attraction to physically thrilling activities. Correlations of these measures with length of most recent dependency before treatment, time on program, and time since initial dependency suggest that the demonstrated peculiarities of the methadone clients probably antedated their involvement with opiate drugs. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some failures of intermanual and cross-lateral transfer in chronic schizophrenia.

The suggestion that split-brain symptoms are present in schizophrenia was investigated by using tests of intermanual and cross-lateral transfer. Ss were 24 chronic schizophrenics (mean age 52.1 yrs), 6 matched depressive and anxious patients, and 6 normal controls. All Ss were right-handed. Disconnections were seen on a variety of manual and cross-lateral transfer tasks involving position location on the hands, the arms, and the body as well as on tasks of manual tapping transfer. These are interpreted as communication failures of the brain related to callosal disturbance. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Time-linked impairment in schizophrenic reaction time performance.

Reports on the disruptive influence of uncertain visual probe stimuli on schizophrenic reaction time performance as a function of both the time since the onset of the probe stimuli and the pathology level of the Ss. Two studies were conducted, using 32 process schizophrenics, 16 reactive schizophrenics, 16 nonschizophrenic patients (alcoholic, immature personality, and depression diagnoses), and 16 normal controls. Mean ages of Ss ranged from 28.2 to 37.1 yrs. Probe trials were imbedded within standard series of regular reaction time trials. Both process and reactive schizophrenics were impaired by this stimulation on trials with only a 1-sec preparatory interval. Process schizophrenics showed impairment at the longest (9-sec) trials following recovery at midrange durations. The midrange recovery and long trial impairment of the process schizophrenics was a pattern strongly related to degree of pathology. The same U-shaped pattern—early and late impairment with intermediate recovery—and a similar relationship of the reaction time pattern to pathology level were found again in a 2nd sample of process schizophrenics who were given less intense visual stimulation on the probe trials. The U-shaped patterns obtained for the process schizophrenics in both studies are thought to reflect inadequate modulation of inhibitory controls. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Scales for physical and social anhedonia

Devised 2 true–false scales to measure anhedonia, the lowered ability to experience pleasure: a 40-item Physical Anhedonia (PA) scale and a 48-item Social Anhedonia (SA) scale. After scale development using 371 college students, the final version was given to 505 normal adults stratified by social class, age (18–45), and sex, and to 123 male schizophrenics. The potential artifacts of social desirability, acquiescence, and random responding were ruled out. Coefficient alpha values for PA and for SA were .74 and .85 for male normal Ss and .82 and .85 for male schizophrenics. Schizophrenics scored more anhedonic than normal Ss on both PA and SA. Schizophrenics' scores on PA fell into 2 clusters of scores, one resembling the total distribution of the normal Ss, and a 2nd cluster consisting of scores that were more anhedonic than those of the normal Ss. Anhedonics were more often poor premorbid and hedonics more often good premorbid. The PA scale may be useful for testing the hypotheses, advanced by several theorists, that anhedonia is genetically transmitted and that nonpsychotic anhedonics are at high risk for schizophrenia. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)