title: Word production in schizophrenia and its relationship to positive symptoms.
abstract: We explored relationships between positive symptoms of schizophrenia and neurocognitive functions (language and memory). The semantic and phonemic associations among words produced in a verbal fluency task by 26 participants diagnosed with DSM-III-R schizophrenia were examined. Formal thought disorder was associated with producing fewer contextually related words and with producing more unrelated words. In contrast, hallucinations were associated with producing more related words. Our results suggest associations between formal thought disorder and impaired memory, and between hallucinations and increased lexical activation/excessive synaptic pruning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign 61820, USA.
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Kerns
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Berenbaum
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Barch
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Banich
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Stolar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006212:Hallucinations / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D008959:Models, Neurological; D008960:Models, Psychological; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000145:classification / Q000503:physiopathology; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology