title: Utility of a computerized, paced semantic verbal fluency paradigm in differentiating schizophrenia and healthy subjects.
abstract: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigms designed to study word generation traditionally utilize a computerized paced version of the verbal fluency task (VFT) comprising 'blocks' of word generation and a baseline word repetition task. The utility of the above paced VFT paradigm in differentiating neuropsychiatric patients from healthy subjects has not been systematically examined. We administered a computerized, paced version of the semantic VFT comprising word generation and word repetition blocks to 24 schizophrenia and 24 matched healthy subjects, both before and during fMRI acquisition. The performance of patients with schizophrenia was significantly inferior to that of healthy control subjects in both the 'pre-scan' and 'intra-scan' sessions of the computerized paced semantic VFT. Specifically, schizophrenia patients generated significantly fewer total responses (VFTR) as well as correct responses (VFCR), but a larger number of 'no response' trials. However, there were no significant group differences in perseverative responses in the pre-scan session or 'intra-scan' sessions. The above computerized task has been reported by us previously to generate a behavioral performance index with hemodynamic correlates (John et al., 2011). Thus, our findings support the use of computerized paced VFT comprising word generation and word repetition blocks in both clinical and research settings.
authors: Schizophrenia Research Lab, Department of Psychology, Kent State University, P.O. Box 5190, Kent, OH 44242-0001, USA.
authors: Mohammed K
authors: MK
authors: Shakeel
authors: Multimodal Brain Image Analysis Laboratory (MBIAL), NIMHANS, Bangalore 560029, India.
authors: Harsha N
authors: HN
authors: Halahalli
authors: Multimodal Brain Image Analysis Laboratory (MBIAL), NIMHANS, Bangalore 560029, India.
authors: Kiran
authors: K
authors: Kumar
authors: Department of Psychiatry, NIMHANS, Bangalore 560029, India.
authors: Sanjeev
authors: S
authors: Jain
authors: Multimodal Brain Image Analysis Laboratory (MBIAL), NIMHANS, Bangalore 560029, India; Department of Psychiatry, NIMHANS, Bangalore 560029, India; Department of Clinical Neuroscience, NIMHANS, Bangalore 560029, India. Electronic address: jpjnimhans@gmail.com.
authors: John P
authors: JP
authors: John
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D013060:Speech; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Hemodynamic; VFT; Word generation; Word repetition; fMRI