Language and conversation are deeply interrelated: language is acquired, structured, practiced in social interactions and linguistic resources (specifically syntactic, prosodic and pragmatic aspects) contribute to finely tuning turn-taking. Nevertheless, most studies focused on verbal aspects of speech in schizophrenia, with scant attention to their relation to conversation, where language is experienced at most.

The present study was aimed at investigating a possible association between language impairment and conversational characteristics in a sample of clinically stable patients diagnosed with schizophrenia (N = 35, ages 18-65).

A spontaneous speech sample was recorded. For the assessment of language skills, the Scale for the Assessment of Thought, Language and Communication (TLC) and the Clinical Language Disorder Rating Scale (CLANG) were used, while conversational variables were extracted with an innovative method of semi-automatic analysis. The possible associations were investigated through the Pearson Correlation.

Figure 1 represents graphically the correlational matrix between conversational variables and linguistic scale scores. In the heatmap, blue means negative and red positive correlations, the stronger the colour, the larger the correlation magnitude. Moreover, the significant associations are indicated with stars.

The results suggest that in schizophrenia spectrum disorders the disturbances of language, at a syntactic, prosodic and pragmatic level, have significant impact on communicative interaction.

Thus, conversation analysis might be a promising method to quantify objectively communicative impairment with the benefit of representing an ecological assessment, examining the performance of patients in the real situation of language use, which is social interaction.

No significant relationships.

Several, although not all, of the previous small diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) studies have shown cortical white-matter disruption in schizophrenia.

To investigate cortical white-matter microstructure with DWI in a large community-based sample of people with schizophrenia.

Sixty-eight people with schizophrenia and 64 healthy controls underwent a session of DWI to obtain the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of white-matter water molecules. Regions of interest were placed in cortical lobes.

Compared with controls, the schizophrenia group had significantly greater ADCs in frontal, temporal and occipital white matter (analysis of covariance, P < 0.05).

Our findings confirm the presence of cortical white-matter microstructure disruption in frontal and temporo-occipital lobes in the largest sample of people with schizophrenia thus for studied with this technique. Future brain imaging studies, together with genetic investigations, should further explore white-matter integrity and genes encoding myelin-related protein expression in people with first-episode schizophrenia and those at high risk of developing the disorder.