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Frequency of normative word associations in the speech of individuals at familial high-risk for schizophrenia
Schizophrenia Research, 07/27/2012
Clinical Article
Manschreck TC et al. – The authors' results suggest that some language disturbances in schizophrenia likely arise from an underlying psychopathological mechanism, hyperactivity of semantic associations.
Methods- The present study further examined this deviance in schizophrenia by studying normative associations in those who share genes with an individual with schizophrenia, (i.e. first-degree relatives of probands with schizophrenia; HR) but who do not have an illness.
- Familial high-risk participants (n=22), and controls (n=24) provided verbal responses to cards from the Thematic Apperception Test.
- CAST analysis revealed that HR used more associated words in their speech compared to controls.
- Furthermore, the frequency of normative word associations was positively correlated with dimensional and total scores of schizotypy derived from ratings of the structured interview for schizotypy, which confirms past research showing a relationship between schizotypy and hyperassociations.