scholarly journals High Order Linguistic Features Such as Ambiguity Processing as Relevant Diagnostic Markers for Schizophrenia

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Ketteler ◽  
Anastasia Theodoridou ◽  
Simon Ketteler ◽  
Matthias Jäger
Keyword(s):  
High Order ◽  
Test Battery ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Performance Deficits ◽  
Linguistic Performance ◽  
Order Language ◽  
Function Test ◽  
Schizophrenic Patients ◽  
Schizophrenic Group

Due to the deficits of schizophrenic patients regarding the understanding of vague meanings (D. Ketteler and S. Ketteler (2010)) we develop a special test battery called HOLF (high order linguistic function test), which should be able to detect subtle linguistic performance deficits in schizophrenic patients. HOLF was presented to 40 schizophrenic patients and controls, focussing on linguistic features such as ambiguity, synonymy, hypero-/hyponymy, antinomy, and adages. Using the HOLF test battery we found that schizophrenic patients showed significant difficulties in discriminating ambiguities, hypero- and hyponymy, or synonymy compared to healthy controls. Antonyms and adages showed less significant results in comparing both groups. The more difficult a linguistic task was, the more confusion was measured in the schizophrenic group while healthy controls did not show significant problems in processing high order language tasks.

Laterality of visuo-spatial attention in acute and chronic schizophrenia, major depression and in healthy controls

1995 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 1091-1095 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. O'Carroll ◽  
A. Rogers ◽  
S. M. Lawrie ◽  
C. Murray ◽  
M. Van Beck ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Major Depression ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Chronic Schizophrenia ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Opposite Pattern ◽  
Chronic Schizophrenic ◽  
Schizophrenic Patients ◽  
Schizophrenic Group ◽  
Two Measures

SYNOPSISPrevious studies have suggested that schizophrenia is characterized by an asymmetry of visuo-spatial attention, in particular that acute unmedicated schizophrenics demonstrate relative inattention to right hemispace, whereas chronically medicated patients demonstrate the opposite pattern. In the present study, 30 unmedicated schizophrenic patients, 32 chronically medicated schizophrenic patients, 30 patients suffering from major depression and 60 healthy controls were assessed using two measures of hemispatial attentional neglect, namely letter and star cancellation. The results demonstrated that the chronic schizophrenic group made more total omissions for star cancellation (in both right and left hemispace), but that there was no difference between the groups in terms of omission asymmetry for either letter or star cancellation.

scholarly journals Neurodevelopmental correlates in schizophrenia

2003 ◽  
Vol 131 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 294-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maja Ivkovic ◽  
Aleksandar Damjanovic ◽  
Vladimir Paunovic
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Disorders ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Birth Complications ◽  
Maternal Recall ◽  
Structural Abnormalities ◽  
Schizophrenic Patients ◽  
Schizophrenic Group ◽  
Neuro Imaging ◽  
Minor Physical Anomalies

Contemporary aetiopathogenetic considerations, based on neuro-imaging genetic and developmental neurobiology studies, suggest neurodevelopmental origin of schizophrenia. Several lines of evidence including structural abnormalities on in vivo brain imaging, the excess of prenatal and obstetric complications and the association of congenital and minor physical anomalies with schizophrenia, strongly indicate the neurodevelopmental pathogenesis of schizophrenia. On the other hand, controversial concept of psychotic continuum suggests schizophrenia and depression sharing the same genetic contribution to the pathogenesis. If this would be the case, depression could also be considered as neuro developmental disorder. The aims of the study were to investigate the association between: a) pregnancy and birth complications (PBC), and b) minor physical anomalies (MPA) and schizophrenia or depression. Experimental groups consisted of 60 schizophrenic, 28 major depression patients and 30 healthy controls. All patients were diagnosed according to DSM-IV. Schizophrenic group was divided with regard to PANSS score into positive (n=32) and negative form (n=28) subgroups. PBC information were gathered from maternal recall while MPA were examined by using Waldrop scale for adults. The results showed that negative and positive schizophrenic subgroups had significantly more PBC than depressive group (p<0,05), as well than controls (p<0,001; p<0,05; respectively). There was no significant trend for more PBC in negative than in positive subgroup. All schizophrenic patients had higher rates of MPA than depressives (p<0,05). This trend for more MPA was not significant in comparison with healthy controls. These findings suggest that schizophrenia, especially its negative forms, could be considered as a member of the spectrum of neuro developmental disorders, which does not seem to be the case with depression. PBC and MPA could also be valuable in evaluation of risks for schizophrenia and possible predictive indicators of its development.

Evaluation of an Executive Functioning Test Battery in Two Versions with Material Close to Daily Life

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 245-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Kallweit ◽  
Cornelia Exner
Keyword(s):  
Executive Functioning ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Adult Adhd ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Test Battery ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Performance Deficits ◽  
Life Tasks ◽  
The Future

Abstract. The assessment of executive functions (EF) often yields conflicting results between standardized tests and self-ratings (e. g., in depression or adult ADHD). For the present investigation, standardized EF-tasks were enriched in order to better represent executive demands of daily life. In the future this may improve the assessment and prediction of reported performance deficits in daily life. An EF-test battery was designed with material close to daily life; tasks were matched to basic executive functions. Healthy students took part in two preliminary studies to evaluate the reliability, validity, and comparability of five tasks. In the end, four tasks seem suitable, whereas one task underlies several limitations. The tasks can reliably be used and should be re-evaluated in further studies with adult ADHD participants and healthy controls.

Patterns of cortical activity in schizophrenia

1994 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 947-955 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Schroeder ◽  
M. S. Buchsbaum ◽  
B. V. Siegel ◽  
F. J. Geider ◽  
R. J. Haier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Lobe ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Hemispheric Asymmetry ◽  
Performance Test ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Continuous Performance Test ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Positron Emission ◽  
Schizophrenic Patients ◽  
Schizophrenic Group

SynopsisEighty-three patients with schizophrenia and 47 healthy controls received positron emission tomography (PET) with 18F-2-deoxyglucose uptake while they were executing the Continuous Performance Test (CPT). The entire cortex was divided into 16 regions of interest in each hemisphere, four in each lobe of the brain, and data from corresponding right and left hemispheric regions were averaged. Data from the schizophrenic patients were subjected to a factor analysis, which revealed five factors that explained 80% of the common variance. According to their content, the factors were identified and labelled ‘parietal cortex and motor strip’, ‘associative areas’, ‘temporal cortex’, ‘hypofrontality’ (which included midfrontal and occipital areas) and ‘frontal cortex’. Hemispheric asymmetry was only confirmed for the temporal cortex. Factor weights obtained in the schizophrenic group were applied to the metabolic data of the healthy controls and factor scales computed. Schizophrenics were significantly more hypofrontal than the controls, with higher values on the ‘parietal cortex and motor strip’ factor and a trend towards higher values in the temporal cortex. A canonical discriminant analysis confirmed that the ‘hypofrontality’ and ‘parietal cortex and motor strip’ factors accurately separated the schizophrenic group from the healthy controls. Hemispheric asymmetry was only confirmed for the temporal lobe. Significantly higher factor scores for the left temporal lobe in schizophrenics than in normals were obtained when calculated for the right and left hemisphere separately. Taken together, our results confirm the importance of hypofrontality as a pattern of cortical metabolic rate and point to the potential importance of parietal and motor strip function in schizophrenia.

Halstead-Reitan Test Battery: A Problem of Differential Diagnosis

1980 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 611-630
Author(s):  
Irmingard I. Lenzer
Keyword(s):  
Brain Damage ◽  
Test Performance ◽  
Construct Validation ◽  
Neuropsychological Test ◽  
Summary Score ◽  
Test Battery ◽  
Medical Patients ◽  
Test Taking ◽  
Limited Applicability ◽  
Schizophrenic Patients

The Halstead-Reitan Test Battery is one of the most widely recognized neuropsychological test batteries. Many claims have been made as to its validity. Despite these claims, doubts persist. A critical review of the literature shows that the battery can separate brain-damaged patients from normal patients, general medical patients, and patients with certain psychiatric disorders. However, the battery cannot separate brain-damaged patients as a group from schizophrenics as a group, though in individual cases there may exist pathognomonic signs indicating brain damage. The impairment index, as a summary score of the basic tests, as well as other “methods of inference,” fail at this point. Four alternatives are discussed. First, brain-damaged patients differ from schizophrenic patients not in test performance but in test-taking behavior. Second, the battery is a valid measure of brain damage but has limited applicability. Third, the battery is a measure not of brain damage but of degree of degradation of psychological processes. And fourth, schizophrenics perform poorly on the battery because they have undetected brain damage. Only the third and fourth alternatives appear viable. Both question the validity of the traditional criteria of brain damage. It is argued that future validation studies of the battery should be of construct validation type and not of the criterion-oriented type, as these are defined by Cronbach and Meehl (1955). Possible procedures for construct validation are briefly discussed.

Facial emotion recognition and its relationship to cognition and depressive symptoms in patients with Parkinson's disease

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 1165-1179 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Pietschnig ◽  
L. Schröder ◽  
I. Ratheiser ◽  
I. Kryspin-Exner ◽  
M. Pflüger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Emotion Recognition ◽  
Recognition Performance ◽  
Neuropsychological Test ◽  
Test Battery ◽  
Facial Emotion Recognition ◽  
Facial Emotion ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Amnestic Mci ◽  
Cognitively Intact

ABSTRACTBackground:Impairments in facial emotion recognition (FER) have been detected in patients with Parkinson disease (PD). Presently, we aim at assessing differences in emotion recognition performance in PD patient groups with and without mild forms of cognitive impairment (MCI) compared to healthy controls.Methods:Performance on a concise emotion recognition test battery (VERT-K) of three groups of 97 PD patients was compared with an age-equivalent sample of 168 healthy controls. Patients were categorized into groups according to two well-established classifications of MCI according to Petersen's (cognitively intact vs. amnestic MCI, aMCI, vs. non-amnestic MCI, non-aMCI) and Litvan's (cognitively intact vs. single-domain MCI, sMCI, vs. multi-domain MCI, mMCI) criteria. Patients and controls underwent individual assessments using a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery examining attention, executive functioning, language, and memory (Neuropsychological Test Battery Vienna, NTBV), the Beck Depression Inventory, and a measure of premorbid IQ (WST).Results:Cognitively intact PD patients and patients with MCI in PD (PD-MCI) showed significantly worse emotion recognition performance when compared to healthy controls. Between-groups effect sizes were substantial, showing non-trivial effects in all comparisons (Cohen's ds from 0.31 to 1.22). Moreover, emotion recognition performance was higher in women, positively associated with premorbid IQ and negatively associated with age. Depressive symptoms were not related to FER.Conclusions:The present investigation yields further evidence for impaired FER in PD. Interestingly, our data suggest FER deficits even in cognitively intact PD patients indicating FER dysfunction prior to the development of overt cognitive dysfunction. Age showed a negative association whereas IQ showed a positive association with FER.

scholarly journals Altered Glutathione Redox State in Schizophrenia

2006 ◽  
Vol 22 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 83-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey K. Yao ◽  
Sherry Leonard ◽  
Ravinder Reddy
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Antioxidant Status ◽  
Dynamic State ◽  
Radical Scavenger ◽  
Enzymatic Reactions ◽  
Control Subjects ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Schizophrenic Patients ◽  
Schizophrenic Group ◽  
Positive Correlations

Altered antioxidant status has been reported in schizophrenia. The glutathione (GSH) redox system is important for reducing oxidative stress. GSH, a radical scavenger, is converted to oxidized glutathione (GSSG) through glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and converted back to GSH by glutathione reductase (GR). Measurements of GSH, GSSG and its related enzymatic reactions are thus important for evaluating the redox and antioxidant status. In the present study, levels of GSH, GSSG, GPx and GR were assessed in the caudate region of postmortem brains from schizophrenic patients and control subjects (with and without other psychiatric disorders). Significantly lower levels of GSH, GPx, and GR were found in schizophrenic group than in control groups without any psychiatric disorders. Concomitantly, a decreased GSH:GSSG ratio was also found in schizophrenic group. Moreover, both GSSG and GR levels were significantly and inversely correlated to age of schizophrenic patients, but not control subjects. No significant differences were found in any GSH redox measures between control subjects and individuals with other types of psychiatric disorders. There were, however, positive correlations between GSH and GPx, GSH and GR, as well as GPx and GR levels in control subjects without psychiatric disorders. These positive correlations suggest a dynamic state is kept in check during the redox coupling under normal conditions. By contrast, lack of such correlations in schizophrenia point to a disturbance of redox coupling mechanisms in the antioxidant defense system, possibly resulting from a decreased level of GSH as well as age-related decreases of GSSG and GR activities.

scholarly journals Association study of fibroblast growth factor genes and brain volumes in schizophrenic patients and healthy controls

2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 283-284
Author(s):  
Afke F. Terwisscha van Scheltinga ◽  
Steven C. Bakker ◽  
Neeltje E.M. van Haren ◽  
Heleen B.M. Boos ◽  
Hugo G. Schnack ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Growth Factor ◽  
Association Study ◽  
Fibroblast Growth Factor ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Fibroblast Growth ◽  
Brain Volumes ◽  
Schizophrenic Patients ◽  
Growth Factor Genes

scholarly journals ELEVATED UNCONJUGATED BILIRUBIN IN SCHIZOPHRENIC PATIENTS

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Ilhamuddin Aziz ◽  
Yuyun Widaningsih ◽  
Rosdiana Natzir ◽  
A. Jayalangkara Tanra
Keyword(s):  
Total Bilirubin ◽  
International Classification Of Diseases ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Elevated Liver Enzymes ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
Classification Of Diseases ◽  
Icd 10 ◽  
Schizophrenic Patients ◽  
Schizophrenic Group ◽  
Cross Sectional Design

Strategies for schizophrenic treatment still have been developed in order to increase their effectively, based on latest findings in the etio-pathology. Coincidence of hyperbilirubinemia, especially related to Gilbert’s Syndrome (GS), and schizophrenia/other psychiatric disorders, was reported in several studies although the pattern of this alteration is still controversial.  Bilirubin could induce microglia to release pro-inflammatory cytokine that cause neuroinflammation, one of hypothetic etio-pathogenesis has been the most extensively studied recently. However, no data have been presented about this phenomenon in Indonesia. Therefore, this study aims to investigate plasma bilirubin concentration in psychotic spectrum.This study is cross sectional design that we examined both the total bilirubin and direct bilirubin of every psychotic patient admitted for the first time to Rumah Sakit Khusus Daerah (RSKD) Provinsi Sulawesi Selatan over a period of July—December 2012, by using health people as control. Diagnostic determination was set based on International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 10. Patients suffering from any disease such as anemia (decreased hemoglobin), liver diseases (elevated liver enzymes), or substance abuse were excluded.            From 73 samples, we found that plasma UCB level was significantly elevated, higher in psychotic patients, especially schizophrenic group, than in the control. Total bilirubin rate was slightly increased in schizophrenic group compare to the others and two samples in this group showed hyperbilirubinemia. Further investigations are needed to ensure that whether the elevated UCB was related to GS and whether this condition has inflammatory effect.

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