Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vvkck Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T07:31:11.041Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Semantic inhibition disorders in schizophrenic patients assessed by a lexical decision task

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

C Passerieux ,
MC Hardy-Bayle  and
D Widlöcher
C Passerieux
Affiliation:
INSERM Unité de Recherche U302, Hôpital de la Pitié-salpêtrière, 47, bd de l'Hôpital, 75013Paris, France
MC Hardy-Bayle*
Affiliation:
INSERM Unité de Recherche U302, Hôpital de la Pitié-salpêtrière, 47, bd de l'Hôpital, 75013Paris, France
D Widlöcher
Affiliation:
INSERM Unité de Recherche U302, Hôpital de la Pitié-salpêtrière, 47, bd de l'Hôpital, 75013Paris, France
*
*Correspondence and reprints: Prof MC Hardy-Bayle, Service de Psychiatrie, Hôpital Richaud, 1, rue Richaud, 78011 Versailles Cedex, France.
Get access

Summary

Lexical decision tasks were used in 17 schizophrenic subjects and 11 control subjects, to evaluate the so-called automatic priming of semantic links, and the controlled processes which involve longer lexical anticipation strategies. In this type of trial, inhibition in the recognition of the target word, when the preceding priming word is not semantically linked to it, indicates the activation of such controlled processes. Postulating that patients in the schizophrenic group were heterogeneous in terms of cognition, we compared the resultant scores in two subtypes of schizophrenic patients: paranoid and hebephrenic (CIM-9 criteria). The study demonstrated that there was a difference in performance between the schizophrenic subtypes. Although these findings need to be confirmed, they demonstrate the necessity of determining individual profiles of patients entering the trial, to take into account those of their phenomenological differences that may correspond to differences in cognitive functioning. The results indicate an absence of inhibition, but only in the paranoid group. In these subjects, results were consistent with the hypothesis of a failure to set up controlled processes rather than a stronger “automatic” activation of the semantic links. However, as the results were not significant, the hypothesis remains open to further investigation. The reasons for the nonsignificance of the results and alternative hypotheses are discussed.

Keywords

lexical decision taskschizophreniacontrolled processesinformation processing
Type
Original Articles
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , 1995 , pp. 36 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © Elsevier, Paris 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders(DSMIII-R). Washington, DC, 1987 (French translation: Guelfi JD et al. Paris: Masson, 1989)Google Scholar
Beauvillain, CSegui, JRôle du contexte dans la décision lexicale: rapidité d'établissement d'une facilitation sémantique. L'Année Psychol. 1983;83: 39–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bensaid, AHardy-Bayle, MCSegui, JHardy, PWidlocher, DOrganisation sémantique du “lexique interne” chez 12 sujets schizophrènes. Acta Psychiatr Belg. 1989;89: 40–55Google Scholar
Boyer, PColl. “Nodules”. Les troubles du langage en Psychiatrie. Paris: PUF, 1981Google Scholar
Braccini, TBertagni, NÉtude du mécanisme des associations verbales chez les psychotiques à l'aide d'un test sémantique. Psychol Med. 1980;12(9):1859–64Google Scholar
Chaika, EA unified explanation for the diverse structural deviations reported for adult schizophrenics with disrupted speech. J Commun Disord. 1982;15: 167–89CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chaika, ELambe, RThe locus of dysfunction in schizophrenic speech. Schizophrenia Bull. 1985;11(1):8–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chapin, KMcCown, JVann, LKenney, DYoussef, IActivation and facilitation in the lexicon of schizophrenics. Schizophr Res. 1992;6: 251–5CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crow, TJMolecular pathology of schizophrenia: more than one dimension of pathology?. Br J Psychiatry. 1980;158: 340–5Google Scholar
De Groot, AMBThomassen, AJWMHudson, PTWAssociative facilitation of word recognition as measured from a neutral prime. Memory Cognition. 1982;10: 358–7010.3758/BF03202428CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hardy-Bayle, MCSegui, JHardy, PPasserieux, CAllilaire, JFWidlocher, DÉtude de l'utilisation de certaines connaissances syntaxiques et lexicales chez dix patients schizophrènes. Psychiatr Psychobiol. 1989;4: 387–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, PDLaboratory Research: its relevance to positive and negative symptoms. In: Harvey, PDWalker, EEPositive and Negative Symptoms of Psychosis. Hillsdale, Hove, London: L.E.A., 1987Google Scholar
Kwapil, TRHegley, DCChapman, LJChapman, JPFacilitation of word recognition by semantic priming in schizophrenia. J Abnorm Psychol. 9931990 215–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liddle, PFThe symptoms of chronic schizophrenia: a reexamination of the positive-negative dichotomy. Br J Psychiatry. 1987a;151: 145–5110.1192/bjp.151.2.145CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liddle, PFSchizophrenic syndromes, cognitive performance and neurological dysfunction. Psychol Med. 1987b;17: 49–5710.1017/S0033291700012976CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liddle, PFMorris, DLSchizophrenic syndromes and frontal lobe performance. Br J Psychiatry. 1991;158: 340–510.1192/bjp.158.3.340CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maher, BA tentative theory of schizophrenic utterance. In: Maher, BAMayer, WBProgress in Experimental Personality Research.Psychopathology. Vol 12 New York: Academic Press, 1983 1–52Google Scholar
Manschreck, TCMaher, BAMilavetz, JJAmes, DWeisstein, CCSchneyer, MLSemantic priming in thought disordered schizophrenic patients. Schizophr Res. 1988;1: 61–610.1016/0920-9964(88)90041-2CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meyer, DESchvaneveldt, RWFacilitation in recognizing pairs of words: evidence of a dependence between retrieval operations. J Exp Psychol. 1971;90: 227–34CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Posner, MISnyder, CRRAttention and cognitive control. In: Solso, RLInformation Processing and Cognition: The Loyola Symposium. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1975 55–85Google Scholar
Saccuzzo, DPSchubert, DLBackward masking as a measure of slow processing in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. J Abnorm Psychol. 1981;90: 305–12CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schvaneveldt, RWMeyer, DERetrieval and comparison processes in semantic memory. In: Kornblum, SAttention and Performance. Vol. 4 New York: Academic Presse, 1973 395–410Google Scholar
Schwartz, SIs there a schizophrenic language?. Behav Brain Sci. 1982;5: 579–62610.1017/S0140525X00013650CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vinogradov, SOber, BAShenaut, GKSemantic priming of word pronunciation and lexical decision in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res. 1992;8: 171–8110.1016/0920-9964(92)90033-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Widlocher, DHardy-Bayle, MCProgrammation and action control in psychopathology. Eur Bull Cognit Psychol. 961989 583–616Google Scholar
Widlocher, DHardy-Bayle, MCProgrammation and action control in psychopathology. Eur Bull Cognit Psychol. 1989;9(6):694–703Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.