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Production of atypical category exemplars in patients with schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 July 2010

GILDAS BRÉBION ,
RODRIGO A. BRESSAN ,
RUTH I. OHLSEN ,
LYN S. PILOWSKY  and
ANTHONY S. DAVID
GILDAS BRÉBION*
Affiliation:
Section of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom Unit of Research and Development, Sant Joan de Déu - Serveis de Salut Mental y CIBERSAM, Barcelona, Spain
RODRIGO A. BRESSAN
Affiliation:
Center for Neuroimaging and Cognition, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
RUTH I. OHLSEN
Affiliation:
Section of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
LYN S. PILOWSKY
Affiliation:
Section of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
ANTHONY S. DAVID
Affiliation:
Section of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
*
*Correspondence and reprint requests to: Gildas Brébion, Unit of Research and Development, Sant Joan de Déu - Serveis de Salut Mental, C\ Doctor Antoni Pujadas 42, 08830 Sant Boi de Llobregat (Barcelona) Spain. E-mail: gildas.brebion@kcl.ac.uk
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Abstract

Previous studies have revealed semantic memory impairments in patients with schizophrenia, and suggested that certain of these impairments were related to thought disorganization. One explanation offered for this is a broadening of the boundaries of semantic categories in schizophrenia. We selected 16 semantic categories, and required a sample of 41 schizophrenia patients and 43 healthy control subjects to produce one exemplar from each category. The typicality of the subjects’ responses was rated. The exemplars produced by the patients were on average less typical than those produced by the healthy controls. No significant association between typicality of the response and thought disorganization was revealed in the patient sample. Affective flattening, alogia, and anhedonia were significantly and inversely associated with the typicality score, that is, higher ratings of these symptoms were associated with more typical responses. Our results suggest that a broadening of semantic category boundaries is observed in patients with schizophrenia, but is unrelated to thought disorganization. This semantic abnormality is not a feature of the patients with high ratings of certain negative symptoms. (JINS, 2010, 16, 822–828.)

Keywords

Semantic memoryLanguageCognitive symptomsNegative symptomsThought disorganizationDelusions
Type
Research Articles
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 16 , Issue 5 , September 2010 , pp. 822 - 828
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2010

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