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1.
Schizophr Res ; 168(1-2): 44-9, 2015 Oct.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-26165939

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The Harvard Adolescent Family High Risk (FHR) Study examined multiple domains of function in young relatives of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia to identify precursors of the illness. One such area is motor performance, which is deviant in people with schizophrenia and in children at risk for schizophrenia, usually offspring. The present study assessed accuracy of motor performance and degree of lateralization in FHR adolescents and young adults. METHODS: Subjects were 33 non-psychotic, first-degree relatives of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, and 30 non-psychotic comparison subjects (NpC), ranging in age from 13 to 25 who were compared using a line-drawing task. RESULTS: FHR individuals exhibited less precise and coordinated line drawing but greater degree of lateralization than controls. Performance on the linedrawing task was correlated with degree of genetic loading, a possible predictor of higher risk for schizophrenia in the pedigree. CONCLUSIONS: The observation of increased motor deviance and increased lateralization in FHR can be utilized in identification and initiation of the treatment in those at high risk in order to prevent or delay the full manifestation of this devastating condition. The use of a rigorously quantified measure is likely to add to the sensitivity of measuring motor performance, especially when impairments may be subtle.


Subject(s)
Family Health , Psychomotor Disorders , Schizophrenia/complications , Adolescent , Adult , Female , Functional Laterality , Humans , Male , Neuropsychological Tests , Psychomotor Disorders/diagnosis , Psychomotor Disorders/etiology , Psychomotor Disorders/genetics , Risk , Schizophrenia/genetics , Young Adult
2.
Schizophr Res ; 140(1-3): 99-103, 2012 Sep.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-22819779

ABSTRACT

The intrusion of associations into speech in schizophrenia disrupts coherence and comprehensibility, a feature of formal thought disorder referred to as loosened associations. We have previously proposed that loosened associations may result from hyperactivity in semantic association networks, leading to an increased frequency of associated words appearing in speech. Using Computed Associations in Sequential Text (CAST) software to quantify the frequency of such associations in speech, we have reported more frequent normative associations in language samples from patients with schizophrenia and in individuals with schizotypal characteristics. The present study further examined this deviance in schizophrenia by studying normative associations in those who share genes with an individual with schizophrenia, (i.e. first-degree relatives of probands with schizophrenia; HR) but who do not have an illness. Familial high-risk participants (n=22), and controls (n=24) provided verbal responses to cards from the Thematic Apperception Test. CAST analysis revealed that HR used more associated words in their speech compared to controls. Furthermore, the frequency of normative word associations was positively correlated with dimensional and total scores of schizotypy derived from ratings of the structured interview for schizotypy, which confirms past research showing a relationship between schizotypy and hyperassociations. Our results suggest that some language disturbances in schizophrenia likely arise from an underlying psychopathological mechanism, hyperactivity of semantic associations.


Subject(s)
Association , Family Health , Schizophrenia/epidemiology , Schizophrenic Psychology , Speech Disorders/epidemiology , Adolescent , Adult , Analysis of Variance , Female , Humans , Male , Reference Values , Risk , Schizophrenia/genetics , Speech Disorders/diagnosis , Speech Disorders/genetics , Word Association Tests , Young Adult
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