title: Trail making and olfaction in schizophrenia: implications for processing speed.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Previous research has established a relationship between smell identification deficits (SID) and particular aspects of cognitive function among patients with schizophrenia.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To expand the extant literature, we examined the relationship between SID and the Trail Making Test to determine if processing speed is related to SID.
  
  
  METHODS
  Our sample included 60 inpatients from the New York State Psychiatric Institute's Schizophrenia Research Unit. We considered age, deficit syndrome, verbal intelligence quotient, and education in our analyses due to their documented relationship to smell identification ability.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Trails A errors and Trails A seconds accounted for a significant amount of the variance in University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test scores in a regression analysis (R2=.10, P=.008 and R2=.05, P=.04).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Linking neurocognition to smell identification deficits may prove to be an essential marker for schizophrenia research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Genetics, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY 10032, USA.
authors.forename: Nora
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Goudsmit
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wolitzky
authors.forename: Regine Anna
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Seckinger
authors.forename: Cheryl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Corcoran
authors.forename: Arielle
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stanford
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rosenfield
authors.forename: Ray
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Goetz
authors.forename: Dolores
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Malaspina
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D014145:Trail Making Test; D014888:Wechsler Scales