Positive thought disorder in a hypothetically psychosis-prone population.

Proverb interpretations of subjects who scored high on the Perceptual Aberration-Magical Ideation Scale (Per-Mags) (Chapman & Chapman, 1985) were compared with those of low-scoring controls. Responses to 10 familiar and 3 unfamiliar proverbs were scored for Bizarre-idiosyncratic thinking (J. Marengo et al; see record 1987-30079-001) and literalness (C. A. Hertler et al; see record 1979-12346-001). A Group by Type of Proverb (familiar versus unfamiliar) interaction was found for bizarre-idiosyncratic scores; Per-Mags scored higher than controls on unfamiliar, but not familiar proverbs. The Group?×?Familiarity interaction for bizarre-idiosyncratic scores indicates that the Per-Mag group displayed a subclinical, positive-thought disorder that is affected by the familiarity of the proverbs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

TRAUT: a Rorschach index for screening thought disorder. Tripartite Classification of Autisms

TRAUT, a new approach to the recognition and classification of perceptions on the Rorschach indicative of thought disorder, is based on the rationale that so-called autisms are really "absurdities" that lead to interpretive contradictions. Advantages of TRAUT's logically derived definitions include clarity, generalizeability, and teachability. TRAUT categorizes autisms according to whether they ignore the blot (HYPO), circumvent the task (HYPER) or rationalize counterfactual images by spatial juxtaposition (RELER). Norms and significance tests are presented, demonstrating that thought-disordered patients produce higher TRAUT scores than nonthought-disordered patients and normal individuals. TRAUT categories were also able to differentiate among various types of thought-disordered patients.     

Cognitive substrates of thought disorder, I: the semantic system

OBJECTIVE: Few studies have explored in detail the relation of cognitive deficits in attention, working memory, and semantics to thought disorder. The authors sought to determine whether thought disorder resides in the semantic system or elsewhere. METHOD: Twenty-three normal comparison subjects and 23 patients with schizophrenia participated in the study. All subjects received tests of executive function and working memory, including the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and the Letter-Number Span test; a test of deployment of attentional resources; and tests of semantic processing and language comprehension, including the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, the Speed and Capacity of Language-Processing Test, the Boston Naming Test, and tests of semantic verbal fluency and phonologic verbal fluency, from which was derived a difference score. All patients were also administered the Scale for the Assessment of Thought, Language, and Communication to assess thought disorder. RESULTS: The normal subjects were compared with the schizophrenic patients who were rated as having mild thought disorder (N=13) or moderate to severe thought disorder (N=10). While differences between the schizophrenic subgroups and the comparison subjects were observed on nearly all tests, a large difference in effect size between the two schizophrenic subgroups was apparent only in the verbal fluency difference score. In a series of multiple regression analyses, two variables made significant contributions to the prediction of positive thought disorder: the verbal fluency difference score and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test score. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that clinically rated thought disorder is associated with and may result from semantic processing abnormalities. In particular, patients with more severe thought disorder may have difficulty accessing semantic items because of disorganization of the semantic systems and, to a more limited degree, may also lack a semantic or conceptual knowledge base.     

Left-handedness and thought disorder in the schizophrenias.

The relation between language dysfunction and handedness was examined in a sample of 58 male schizophrenic patients. Severity and type of language dysfunction were assessed using ratings on categories of thought disorder derived from the Schedule of Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (Spitzer & Endicott, 1977). Hand preferred for writing was the criterion for handedness. In this sample, the incidence of left-handedness was raised and left-handedness was associated with the presence and severity of thought disorder. These findings are congruent with the hypothesis that a sizable proportion of left-handed schizophrenic individuals are left-handed because of a disruption in the pattern of hemispheric dominance that also impairs language functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On being "clinical" with colleagues.

"There seem to be… three major categories of being "clinical" with colleagues. The first category is the insult.… The second category of being clinical is the good deed.… The third category is called rationalization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Personality disorder is disease": Comment.

Comments on the article by David Ausubel (see record 1962-03334-001) which argued that mental disorders are a disease. The point made by the current author that the facts that all behavior is mediated through neural structures and physiological processes and that impairment in these may result in disturbed behavior in no way support the proposition that the use of medical measures in treating behavior disorders is justified. Medical interventions for psychological disturbances seem to be warranted only when it can be demonstrated that, first, such procedures are directed toward the alleviation of certain underlying physical anomalies, and second, that the disturbances can be best treated by means of such interventions. Moreover, the fact that physical or psychological interventions can affect behavior in no way bears on the question of whether the condition represents a disease process or not. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship between formal thought disorder and retardation in schizophrenia.

17 schizophrenics admitted into the hospital less than 6 mo before were compared on Bannister's Grid Test of Schizophrenic Thought Disorder with 19 schizophrenics admitted over 6 mo before and with a group of 17 nonschizophrenic, psychiatric controls under 3 conditions: fast rate of responding, slow rate of responding, and in-between rate of responding. It was predicted that the schizophrenics would show more thought disorder under fast than slow conditions and that the recently admitted schizophrenics would be more thought disordered than the earlier admitted schizophrenics. Contrary to expectations, the patients tended to show less thought disorder on the test when their responses were speeded than when they were encouraged to take their time. Moreover, the earlier admitted schizophrenics showed more thought disorder than the recently admitted schizophrenics under all 3 conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A test of Chapman's theory of schizophrenic thought disorder.

Tested the validity of L. J. Chapman's (1964) theory of schizophrenic thought disorder. The vocabulary test from the Shipley-Institute of Living Scale for Measuring Intellectual Impairment served as the control task, and the multiple-choice vocabulary test used by T. B. Boland and L. J. Chapman (see record 1972-03368-001) to disclose a schizophrenic deficit related to thought disorder served as the experimental task. Two groups of 97 hospitalized psychiatric patients, one group classified as schizophrenic and the other as psychiatric controls, served as Ss. Both groups performed below the normal level reported by Boland and Chapman but somewhat above the mean level of the chronic schizophrenics they tested. The schizophrenic group in this study did not perform differently from the psychiatric controls on the experimental task. Results indicate that some factor other than schizophrenic thought disorder was being measured by the experimental task. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Indeterminacy of heritability of thought disorder: Reply to Matthysse and Holzman (1988).

The points raised by Matthysse and Holzman (1988) center around two major issues: (a) how to measure thought disorder and (b) how to think about its relation to schizophrenia and the etiology of that disorder. Some of the limitations that Matthysse and Holzman (1988) note appear to be based on misunderstandings of our (Berenbaum, Oltmanns, & Gottesman, 1985) methods, particularly what we were measuring and why we were measuring it. We, too, were surprised to find no evidence that these fundamental aspects of formal thought disorder are heritable. We do not know whether other anomalies of verbal communication are heritable. The issue must be resolved through further empirical investigation. Finally, some aspects of the model proposed by Matthysse and Holzman are open to serious question. The assumption that there is no relation between severity of illness and the underlying liability that precipitated the illness is most likely incorrect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thalamic deactivation during early implicit sequence learning: a functional MRI study

Previous research has implicated the striatum in implicit sequence learning. However, imaging findings have been inconsistent with regard to activity within the thalamus during performance of such tasks. Contemporary models of cortico-striato-thalamic circuitry suggest opposing influences on thalamic activity; suppression of thalamic activity is mediated by the indirect pathway and enhancement is mediated by the direct pathway. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we studied activity within human thalamus during early and late phases of an implicit sequence learning task known to reliably recruit the striatum. Significant deactivation (decreased signal relative to a baseline condition) was observed within the thalamus during early implicit learning. This finding is consistent with models of cortico-striato-thalamic function and specifically supports a profile of early 'thalamic gating' via the indirect pathway.     

Back to Topeka: Two types of distance in Rapaport's original Rorschach thought disorder categories.

Reports a reanalysis of D. Rapaport's (1946) original deviant-verbalization data for 106 Ss with schizophrenic and preschizophrenic (borderline) diagnoses. The proportional information gain distance between pairs of categories formed the basis for examining the underlying structure of 19 types of deviant Rorschach responses. Smallest-space analysis and nonmetric multidimensional scaling were used to obtain spatial representations of this underlying structure. Results suggest that Rapaport's thought-disorder categories reflect at least 2 distinct dimensions of what Rapaport termed "distance from the blot." One dimension refers to assigning meaning on the basis of either objective characteristics of the stimulus or personal associations; the other refers to Ss' use of rigid and concrete or overly fluid and scattered attentional sets. These 2 dimensions are discussed in terms of rated theoretical conceptions of thought disorder. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lexical cohesion and formal thought disorder during and after psychotic episodes.

Compared speech samples obtained from 10 schizophrenics (mean age 28 yrs), 11 manics (mean age 26.2 yrs), 11 schizoaffectives (mean age 25.8 yrs), and 10 normals (mean age 33.6 yrs) for the amount of lexical cohesion both within and between clauses. Two speech samples were obtained for each patient: one shortly after admission to a psychiatric hospital and another several weeks following discharge. All psychiatric patients showed evidence of formal thought disorder at admission, and all 3 groups showed a significant decline in the extent of thought disorder at follow-up. There were no differences between groups with regard to between-clause lexical cohesion at either point in time. Within-clause lexical cohesion did distinguish among the psychiatric groups at the 1st assessment interval; schizophrenics showed less within-clause lexical cohesion than the manics or schizoaffective patients. The manics and the schizoaffectives showed a significant decline in the amount of within-clause lexical cohesion from initial assessment to follow-up. The schizophrenics exhibited a modest decline in the amount of between-clause lexical cohesion. Results indicate that diagnostic differences in lexical cohesion depended on the specificity of the measure and suggest that there are subtle differences between the forms of verbal-communication impairment observed in schizophrenic and affective disorders. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conflicting predictions from Broen's and Chapman's theories of schizophrenic thought disorder.

Developed multiple-choice vocabulary items containing a correct alternative which was the dominant (most frequent) response for normal ss, an associative distractor alternative of nearly equal frequency, and an irrelevant alternative. W. Broen and L. Storms's theory predicts that a response which is nondominant for normals can never become dominant for schizophrenics, while L. Chapman's theory predicts that such a response can do so if it expresses a normal response bias. 26 chronic schizophrenics chose significantly more associative than correct responses on items for which 26 normals (matched on sex, age, education, and social position) chose significantly more correct than associative. Results are consistent with chapman's theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thalamic pain syndrome: anatomic and metabolic correlation

The reinnervation of cutaneous targets was studied in the rat tail after proximal lesions of all collector nerves. The distribution of immunofluorescent nerve fibres stained for calcitonin-gene-related peptide (CGRP) and substance P (SP) was examined after 110-210 days. Targets at all sites were reinnervated by CGRP-immunoreactive (IR) fibres. However, SP-IR terminals were rare, particularly distally, despite staining within subdermal nerve trunks.