title: Higher-order semantic processing in formal thought disorder in schizophrenia.
abstract: Higher-order semantic impairments and lack of sensitivity to linguistic context have both been implicated in formal thought disorder (FTD) in schizophrenia. Most investigations have focused on comprehension. We investigated the processing of higher-order semantic relations and the role of emotional arousal in FTD patients' linguistic comprehension and production. We compared FTD schizophrenia patients (n=14) with non-FTD schizophrenia patients (n=18) and healthy controls (n=15) on sense-judgment and repetition tasks, in emotionally negative and neutral conditions. We predicted that the FTD group would display poor sensitivity compared to the other two groups in comprehension and production, and that this would be exacerbated by sentence complexity and negative emotional arousal. The emotional manipulation was not robustly successful, and did not affect task performance in the patient groups. FTD patients made significantly more errors on sense-judgments and repetition than the other two groups. Complexity affected all groups to a similar extent in sense-judgments, but affected FTD patients disproportionately in the repetition task. These results support the view that a lack of sensitivity to context underlies FTD in comprehension and production stages of processing. Patients fail to utilise linguistic context to integrate lexical forms into a global whole and guide their access to lexical targets.
authors.affiliation: Kings College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Psychology, London, UK.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dwyer
authors.affiliation: Kings College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Psychosis Studies, London, UK; National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, UK.
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: David
authors.affiliation: University of Southampton, Department of Psychology, Southampton, UK; Wessex Neurological Centre, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton University Hospital Trust,Tremona Road, Southampton, UK.
authors.forename: Rosaleen
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: McCarthy
authors.affiliation: FIDMAG Research Foundation, Germanes Hospitalàries, Barcelona, Spain; CIBERSAM, Spain.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: McKenna
authors.affiliation: Kings College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Psychology, London, UK; National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, UK. Electronic address: emmanuelle.peters@kcl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Emmanuelle
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Peters
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology*; D003147:Communication Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012660:Semantics; D013850:Thinking; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Comprehension; Contextual processing; Production; Schizophrenia