title: Flexibility, inhibition, and planning: frontal dysfunctioning in schizophrenia.
abstract: Neuropsychological tests known to reveal abnormalities in patients with frontal lobe damage were used to explore cognitive function in 20 chronic schizophrenic patients. Eleven control subjects, matched on age and NLV-IQ (NLV is the Dutch version of the NART) were also tested. No impairments of planning ability were found on either the Action Program test or the Zoomap test, both subtests from the BADS (Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome). No abnormalities were apparent on tests of reactive flexibility, measured by task-switching and by the Rule Shift Cards test, also a subtest of the BADS. Patients with schizophrenia, however, had significantly greater difficulty in inhibiting irrelevant information and in generating words in a verbal fluency task, a measure of spontaneous flexibility.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cools
authors.forename: W H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Brouwer
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: de Jong
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Slooff
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D011596:Psychomotor Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index