Somatosensory Processing and Schizophrenia Liability: Proprioception, Exteroceptive Sensitivity, and Graphesthesia Performance in the Biological Relatives of Schizophrenia Patients.

In the present study, the authors examined somatosensory processing in 30 biological relatives of persons with schizophrenia (hereafter called "schizophrenia relatives"), 30 biological relatives of persons with bipolar affective disorder (psychiatric family control subjects), and 30 healthy control subjects with no family history of psychopathology. All 3 groups completed a weight discrimination task, a 2-point discrimination task, and a complex cognitive somatosensory task (i.e., graphesthesia). The schizophrenia relatives performed significantly worse on all 3 somatosensory tasks compared with both the healthy control subjects and the bipolar relatives. The healthy control subjects and psychiatric family control subjects showed no significant differences on any of the somatosensory tasks. Within the weight discrimination and 2-point discrimination tasks, schizophrenia relatives showed group differences on the d' index, the measure of sensitivity, whereas all 3 groups did not differ on lnβ, the measure of response bias, suggesting a genuine difference in weight and touch sensitivity. The d' value of the weight discrimination task was significantly associated with both the cognitive-perceptual factor and negative symptom factor of the clinical questionnaire (e.g., Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire; SPQ), whereas the 2-point discrimination d' value and graphesthesia scores were significantly associated only with the cognitive-perceptual factor of the SPQ. Implications for the possible relation between somatosensory task performance and schizophrenia liability are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hallucinations, Negative Symptoms, and Response Bias in a Verbal Recognition Task in Schizophrenia.

Several studies have reported an association between hallucinations and tendency to make false alarms in acoustic signal detection tasks. Previous work on patients with schizophrenia has suggested that false recognitions and other types of memory error were positively associated with hallucinations and inversely associated with certain negative symptoms of withdrawal. In this study, 40 patients with schizophrenia were administered a word recognition task. Mixed lists of high- and low-frequency words were presented, then the target words had to be recognized among distractors in immediate and delayed recognition conditions. Hallucination scores were correlated with an increased bias toward false recognitions of nonpresented words. Affective flattening tended to be correlated with a reduced bias toward false recognitions. Anhedonia was significantly correlated with a reduced response bias. Hallucinations and anhedonia therefore presented an opposite association with the response bias. The influence of word frequency and delay on this association is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The performance of schizophrenics on social concepts.

"A hypothesis was derived from Cameron's view of schizophrenic thinking as a product of the social disarticulation of this group, as contrasted with Goldstein's interpretation of the defect in schizophrenic thought as the result of an impairment of the abstract attitude. The hypothesis was that schizophrenics would exhibit a greater decrement relative to normals on a test of social concepts than on tests of formal concepts." The data support this hypothesis. 22 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word meaning and sexual identification in paranoid schizophrenics and anxiety neurotics.

From psychoanalytic theory it is reasoned that the paranoid schizophrenic is one who has not made an adequate identification with the parent of like sex; other theoretical formulations presuppose a lack of identification with either parent. To test which of these hypotheses is valid, Osgood's Semantic Differential was used as a measure of identification (as established by Lazowick, 1955). It was given to a sample of hospitalized paranoid schizophrenics, an outpatient VA mental hygiene clinic sample of anxiety neurotics, and 2 control groups, hopsitalized TB patients and working people. The results indicated that the paranoid schizophrenic showed lack of identification with either parent. To some extent, this was true of the identification pattern of the neurotic group, but the latter also showed confusion of identification. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of group problem solving experience upon social withdrawal in chronic schizophrenics.

It was hypothesized that chronic schizophrenics exposed to sustained group problem solving experience would tend to improve their levels of social participation on criterion tasks socially more challenging and complex. It was further hypothesized that such improvement would generalize to task performance with total strangers and to social behavior on the ward. All predictions except the one about ward behavior were confirmed by experimental findings with 32 chronic schizophrenic patients. It is suggested that sustained social experience in situations which elicit social participation permit factors to, become operative which reduce anxiety associated with socially more challenging, complex situations and thus facilitate participation in such situations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Defensive style in the families of schizophrenics and controls.

Biological parents of groups of Good and Poor Premorbid schizophrenics and neurotic controls were administered the Rorschach test in order to evaluate the relative level of ego maturity between parental groups. A rating schedule designed to reflect styles of defensive behavior was devised in an effort to objectify the dimension of ego maturity. It was found that this scale correlated significantly with age, intelligence, and Rorschach response total of the parents employed in the sample. The level of maturity of defensive behavior manifested by the parents was found to differ significantly. Parents of Poor Premorbid schizophrenics produced a greater amount of immature defensive behavior than parents of Good Premorbids, with the parents of neurotic controls falling intermediate between the schizophrenic groups. The difference between parents of "Poors" and neurotics approach significance, while the difference between parents of "Goods" and neurotics was clearly unreliable. (27 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal affect and conformity behavior in schizophrenics.

A group of 28 schizophrenics Ss was equated with a group of 28 normal Ss on the factors of age and education. Each S was then tested as to the number of affectual relationships he produced on 4 Thematic Apperception Test cards. A measure of his conformity to social influence was obtained by a measure of his behavior in a group situation in which he was asked to compare the length of lines in an optical illusion study. An analysis of the data by means of multiple X2 design showed a significant interaction among all 3 factors: mental health, conformity, and affect. The factors of mental health and conformity interacted to a greater extent than did any other 2 factors taken together. Conformity and affect were more closely related to the factor of mental health than they were to each other. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of operant level, interview with experimenter, and awareness upon verbal conditioning of chronic schizophrenics.

The present research attempted to (a) cross-validate N. D. Vestre's (1961, 1965) findings that medium-operant-level pronouns can be conditioned by "good" in a chronic schizophrenic population, (b) test whether or not high-operant-level pronouns can be conditioned by "good" in a chronic schizophrenic population, and (c) compare the conditionability of high-operant-level with that of medium-operant-level pronouns. It was hypothesized that schizophrenics would be more conditionable following a brief, friendly, personal interview than in the absence of any preconditioning interview. It was expected that awareness of the response-reinforcement contingency would favor conditioning. Both the operant level and interview with experimenter variables were investigated to see whether or not either differentially affected (a) the number of aware Ss and (b) the performance of aware Ss. "Good" functioned as a reinforcer for about 1/4 of the Ss in this study. The most important factor contributing to performance was awareness of the response-reinforcement contingency. Also, reinforcement tended to be more effective when Ss had no (instead of a S-min) preexperimental interview with E. Medium-operant-level pronouns were conditionable, and results of conditionability comparisons between high- and medium-preference pronouns depended upon how performance was measured. The negligible conditionability of high-preference pronouns was discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Electrodermal base level, tonic arousal, and adaptation in chronic schizophrenics.

Electrodermal arousal was studied at rest and during repetitive stimulation in chronic schizophrenics who were rated at either extreme of the Montrose Rating scale (MRS), either receiving a phenothiazine or no drugs, and in a control normal sample. Resting base level was significantly higher among Hi than Lo MRS, and among Nondrug than Drug patients: no patient sample was reliably below Control level. Nondrug patients showed no impairment in tonic arousal relative to Controls, even when such patients showed impaired phasic response (though the drug was seemingly associated with diminished tonic response). Considerable independence was demonstrated between phasic and tonic electrodermal functions. Unlike Controls (or Drug patients), Nondrug patients showed a general heightening of electrodermal arousal during repetitive innocuous stimulation. A vigilance hypothesis was offered suggesting that sensitivity to the general demands of the environment remains high among chronic patients, even where there may be a reduction in the input of specific items of information from that environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of Tranquilizers on the Trail Making Test with Chronic Schizophrenics.

46 chronic schizophrenics with at least 3 years of continuous hospitalization, no secondary diagnosis of brain damage, age under 59, and all stabilized on their current medication were tested twice on the Trail Making Test (TMT) with 6 wk. between testings. The experimental group (N = 28) had the 2nd testing, following 5 weeks of being off all drugs. Results show: (a) previous findings that TMT is not a sensitive test for organicity with schizophrenics are true whether or not Ss are on tranquilizers, (b) no relationship between amount of drugs and performance on TMT, and (c) drug withdrawal did not affect performance on TMT. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)