Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-r7xzm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T13:35:27.779Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Amusia and protolanguage impairments in schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2014

J. T. Kantrowitz*
Affiliation:
Schizophrenia Research Center, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY, USA Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
N. Scaramello
Affiliation:
Schizophrenia Research Center, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY, USA
A. Jakubovitz
Affiliation:
Schizophrenia Research Center, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY, USA
J. M. Lehrfeld
Affiliation:
Schizophrenia Research Center, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY, USA
P. Laukka
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Sweden
H. A. Elfenbein
Affiliation:
Olin Business School, Washington University, St Louis, MO, USA
G. Silipo
Affiliation:
Schizophrenia Research Center, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY, USA
D. C. Javitt
Affiliation:
Schizophrenia Research Center, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY, USA Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
*
*Address for correspondence: J. T. Kantrowitz, M.D., Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, 140 Old Orangeburg Road, Orangeburg, NY 10962, USA. (Email: jk3380@columbia.edu)

Abstract

Background

Both language and music are thought to have evolved from a musical protolanguage that communicated social information, including emotion. Individuals with perceptual music disorders (amusia) show deficits in auditory emotion recognition (AER). Although auditory perceptual deficits have been studied in schizophrenia, their relationship with musical/protolinguistic competence has not previously been assessed.

Method

Musical ability was assessed in 31 schizophrenia/schizo-affective patients and 44 healthy controls using the Montreal Battery for Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA). AER was assessed using a novel battery in which actors provided portrayals of five separate emotions. The Disorganization factor of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was used as a proxy for language/thought disorder and the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) was used to assess cognition.

Results

Highly significant deficits were seen between patients and controls across auditory tasks (p < 0.001). Moreover, significant differences were seen in AER between the amusia and intact music-perceiving groups, which remained significant after controlling for group status and education. Correlations with AER were specific to the melody domain, and correlations between protolanguage (melody domain) and language were independent of overall cognition.

Discussion

This is the first study to document a specific relationship between amusia, AER and thought disorder, suggesting a shared linguistic/protolinguistic impairment. Once amusia was considered, other cognitive factors were no longer significant predictors of AER, suggesting that musical ability in general and melodic discrimination ability in particular may be crucial targets for treatment development and cognitive remediation in schizophrenia.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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

Albouy, P, Mattout, J, Bouet, R, Maby, E, Sanchez, G, Aguera, PE, Daligault, S, Delpuech, C, Bertrand, O, Caclin, A, Tillmann, B (2013). Impaired pitch perception and memory in congenital amusia: the deficit starts in the auditory cortex. Brain 136, 16391661.Google Scholar
Arbib, MA (2005). From monkey-like action recognition to human language: an evolutionary framework for neurolinguistics. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 28, 105124; discussion 125–167.Google Scholar
Arbib, MA (2008). From grasp to language: embodied concepts and the challenge of abstraction. Journal of Physiology, Paris 102, 420.Google Scholar
Asaridou, SS, McQueen, JM (2013). Speech and music shape the listening brain: evidence for shared domain-general mechanisms. Frontiers in Psychology 4, 321.Google Scholar
Bach, DR, Buxtorf, K, Grandjean, D, Strik, WK (2009 a). The influence of emotion clarity on emotional prosody identification in paranoid schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine 39, 927938.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bach, DR, Herdener, M, Grandjean, D, Sander, D, Seifritz, E, Strik, WK (2009 b). Altered lateralisation of emotional prosody processing in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research 110, 180187.Google Scholar
Barrera, A, McKenna, PJ, Berrios, GE (2005). Formal thought disorder in schizophrenia: an executive or a semantic deficit? Psychological Medicine 35, 121132.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barrera, A, McKenna, PJ, Berrios, GE (2009). Formal thought disorder, neuropsychology and insight in schizophrenia. Psychopathology 42, 264269.Google Scholar
Bleuler, E (1950). Dementia Praecox or the Group of Schizophrenias. International Universities Press: New York, NY.Google Scholar
Bloch, B, Reshef, A, Vadas, L, Haliba, Y, Ziv, N, Kremer, I, Haimov, I (2010). The effects of music relaxation on sleep quality and emotional measures in people living with schizophrenia. Journal of Music Therapy 47, 2752.Google Scholar
Bozikas, VP, Kosmidis, MH, Anezoulaki, D, Giannakou, M, Andreou, C, Karavatos, A (2006). Impaired perception of affective prosody in schizophrenia. Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences 18, 8185.Google Scholar
Combs, DR, Waguspack, J, Chapman, D, Basso, MR, Penn, DL (2011). An examination of social cognition, neurocognition, and symptoms as predictors of social functioning in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research 128, 177178.Google Scholar
Cuddy, LL, Balkwill, LL, Peretz, I, Holden, RR (2005). Musical difficulties are rare: a study of ‘tone deafness’ among university students. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1060, 311324.Google Scholar
Darwin, C (1871). The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, 1st edn. John Murray: London.Google Scholar
Edwards, J, Jackson, HJ, Pattison, PE (2002). Emotion recognition via facial expression and affective prosody in schizophrenia: a methodological review. Clinical Psychology Review 22, 789832.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Escoffier, N, Zhong, J, Schirmer, A, Qiu, A (2013). Emotional expressions in voice and music: same code, same effect? Human Brain Mapping 34, 17961810.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
First, MB, Spitzer, RL, Gibbon, M, Williams, J (1997). Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I). Biometrics Research Department , New York State Psychiatric Institute: New York.Google Scholar
Fitch, WT (2006). The biology and evolution of music: a comparative perspective. Cognition 100, 173215.Google Scholar
Friedman, T, Sehatpour, P, Dias, E, Perrin, M, Javitt, DC (2012). Differential relationships of mismatch negativity and visual P1 deficits to premorbid characteristics and functional outcome in schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry 71, 521–509.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gillis, A, Lascelles, CF, Crone, N (1958). A comparison of rhythmic and non-rhythmic music in chronic schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry 114, 11111112.Google Scholar
Gold, R, Butler, PD, Revheim, N, Leitman, DI, Hansen, JA, Gur, RC, Kantrowitz, JT, Laukka, P, Juslin, PN, Silipo, GS, Javitt, DC (2012). Auditory emotion recognition impairments in schizophrenia: relationship to acoustic features and cognition. American Journal of Psychiatry 169, 424432.Google Scholar
Grant, PM, Beck, AT (2010). Asocial beliefs as predictors of asocial behavior in schizophrenia. Psychiatry Research 177, 6570.Google Scholar
Green, M, Leitman, D (2008). Social cognition in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin 34, 670672.Google Scholar
Hatada, S, Sawada, K, Akamatsu, M, Doi, E, Minese, M, Yamashita, M, Thornton, AE, Honer, WG, Inoue, S (2013). Impaired musical ability in people with schizophrenia. Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience 38, 120207.Google Scholar
Henry, MJ, McAuley, JD (2010). On the prevalance of congenital amusia. Music Perception 27, 413418.Google Scholar
Herholz, SC, Zatorre, RJ (2012). Musical training as a framework for brain plasticity: behavior, function, and structure. Neuron 76, 486502.Google Scholar
Hoekert, M, Kahn, RS, Pijnenborg, M, Aleman, A (2007). Impaired recognition and expression of emotional prosody in schizophrenia: review and meta-analysis. Schizophrenia Research 96, 135145.Google Scholar
Jahshan, C, Wynn, JK, Green, MF (2013). Relationship between auditory processing and affective prosody in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research 143, 348353.Google Scholar
Jespersen, O (1922). Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin. W. W. Norton & Co.: New York.Google Scholar
Juslin, P, Laukka, P (2003). Communication of emotions in vocal expression and music performance: different channels, same code? Psychological Bulletin 129, 770814.Google Scholar
Kantrowitz, JT, Hoptman, MJ, Leitman, DI, Silipo, G, Javitt, DC (2014). The 5% difference: early sensory processing predicts sarcasm perception in schizophrenia and schizo-affective disorder. Psychological Medicine 44, 2536.Google Scholar
Kantrowitz, JT, Leitman, DI, Lehrfeld, JM, Laukka, P, Juslin, PN, Butler, PD, Silipo, G, Javitt, DC (2013). Reduction in tonal discriminations predicts receptive emotion processing deficits in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. Schizophrenia Bulletin 39, 8693.Google Scholar
Kay, SR, Fiszbein, A, Opler, LA (1987). The positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) for schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin 13, 261276.Google Scholar
Kee, KS, Green, MF, Mintz, J, Brekke, JC (2003). Is emotion processing a predictor of functional outcome in schizophrenia? Schizophrenia Bulletin 29, 487497.Google Scholar
Laukka, P, Eerola, T, Thingujam, NS, Yamasaki, T, Beller, G (2013). Universal and culture-specific factors in the recognition and performance of musical affect expressions. Emotion 13, 434449.Google Scholar
Laukka, P, Elfenbein, HA (2012). Emotion appraisals can be inferred from vocal expressions. Social Psychological and Personality Science 3, 529536.Google Scholar
Leentjens, AF, Wielaert, SM, van Harskamp, F, Wilmink, FW (1998). Disturbances of affective prosody in patients with schizophrenia: a cross sectional study. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry 64, 375378.Google Scholar
Leitman, DI, Foxe, JJ, Butler, PD, Saperstein, A, Revheim, N, Javitt, DC (2005). Sensory contributions to impaired prosodic processing in schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry 58, 5661.Google Scholar
Leitman, DI, Hoptman, MJ, Foxe, JJ, Saccente, E, Wylie, GR, Nierenberg, J, Jalbrzikowski, M, Lim, KO, Javitt, DC (2007). The neural substrates of impaired prosodic detection in schizophrenia and its sensorial antecedents. American Journal of Psychiatry 164, 474482.Google Scholar
Leitman, DI, Laukka, P, Juslin, PN, Saccente, E, Butler, P, Javitt, DC (2010). Getting the cue: sensory contributions to auditory emotion recognition impairments in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin 36, 545556.Google Scholar
Light, G, Swerdlow, N, Braff, D (2007). Preattentive sensory processing as indexed by the MMN and P3a brain responses is associated with cognitive and psychosocial functioning in healthy adults. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 19, 16241632.Google Scholar
Lindenmayer, JP, Bernstein-Hyman, R, Grochowski, S (1994). Five-factor model of schizophrenia: initial validation. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 182, 631638.Google Scholar
Luedtke, BL, Kukla, M, Renard, S, Dimaggio, G, Buck, KD, Lysaker, PH (2012). Metacognitive functioning and social cognition as predictors of accuracy of self-appraisals of vocational function in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research 137, 260261.Google Scholar
Masataka, N (2009). The origins of language and the evolution of music: a comparative perspective. Physics of Life Reviews 6, 1122.Google Scholar
Mossler, K, Chen, X, Heldal, TO, Gold, C (2011). Music therapy for people with schizophrenia and schizophrenia-like disorders. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Issue 12, Art. No. CD004025.Google Scholar
Nuechterlein, KH, Green, MF (2006). MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery. MATRICS Assessment, Inc.: Los Angeles, CA.Google Scholar
Peretz, I (2013). The biological foundations of music: insights from congenital amusia. In The Psychology of Music, 3rd edn (ed. Deutsch, D.), pp. 551564. Academic Press: London, UK.Google Scholar
Peretz, I, Champod, AS, Hyde, K (2003). Varieties of musical disorders. The Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 999, 5875.Google Scholar
Pinheiro, AP, Del Re, E, Mezin, J, Nestor, PG, Rauber, A, McCarley, RW, Goncalves, OF, Niznikiewicz, MA (2013). Sensory-based and higher-order operations contribute to abnormal emotional prosody processing in schizophrenia: an electrophysiological investigation. Psychological Medicine 43, 603618.Google Scholar
Rodriguez-Ferrera, S, McCarthy, RA, McKenna, PJ (2001). Language in schizophrenia and its relationship to formal thought disorder. Psychological Medicine 31, 197205.Google Scholar
Ross, ED, Orbelo, DM, Cartwright, J, Hansel, S, Burgard, M, Testa, JA, Buck, R (2001). Affective-prosodic deficits in schizophrenia: comparison to patients with brain damage and relation to schizophrenic symptoms [corrected]. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry 70, 597604.Google Scholar
Sammler, D, Koelsch, S, Ball, T, Brandt, A, Elger, CE, Friederici, AD, Grigutsch, M, Huppertz, HJ, Knosche, TR, Wellmer, J, Widman, G, Schulze-Bonhage, A (2009). Overlap of musical and linguistic syntax processing: intracranial ERP evidence. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1169, 494498.Google Scholar
Sammler, D, Koelsch, S, Ball, T, Brandt, A, Grigutsch, M, Huppertz, HJ, Knosche, TR, Wellmer, J, Widman, G, Elger, CE, Friederici, AD, Schulze-Bonhage, A (2013). Co-localizing linguistic and musical syntax with intracranial EEG. NeuroImage 64, 134146.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sans-Sansa, B, McKenna, PJ, Canales-Rodriguez, EJ, Ortiz-Gil, J, Lopez-Araquistain, L, Sarro, S, Duenas, RM, Blanch, J, Salvador, R, Pomarol-Clotet, E (2013). Association of formal thought disorder in schizophrenia with structural brain abnormalities in language-related cortical regions. Schizophrenia Research 146, 308313.Google Scholar
Skelly, CG, Haslerud, GM (1952). Music and the general activity of apathetic schizophrenics. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 47, 188192.Google Scholar
Sloboda, JA, Wise, KJ, Peretz, I (2005). Quantifying tone deafness in the general population. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1060, 255261.Google Scholar
Stanislaw, H, Todorov, N (1999). Calculation of signal detection theory measures. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers 31, 137149.Google Scholar
Strous, RD, Cowan, N, Ritter, W, Javitt, DC (1995). Auditory sensory (‘echoic’) memory dysfunction in schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry 152, 15171519.Google Scholar
Thompson, WF, Marin, MM, Stewart, L (2012). Reduced sensitivity to emotional prosody in congenital amusia rekindles the musical protolanguage hypothesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 109, 1902719032.Google Scholar
Umbricht, D, Krljes, S (2005). Mismatch negativity in schizophrenia: a meta-analysis. Schizophrenia Research 76, 123.Google Scholar
Weintraub, IG (1961). Emotional responses of schizophrenics to selected musical compositions. Delaware Medical Journal 33, 186187.Google Scholar
Woods, SW (2003). Chlorpromazine equivalent doses for the newer atypical antipsychotics. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 64, 663667.Google Scholar
Wray, A (1998). Protolanguage as a holistic system for social interaction. Language and Communication 18, 4767.Google Scholar
Wynn, JK, Sugar, C, Horan, WP, Kern, R, Green, MF (2010). Mismatch negativity, social cognition, and functioning in schizophrenia patients. Biological Psychiatry 67, 940947.Google Scholar
Yang, L, Chen, S, Chen, CM, Khan, F, Forchelli, G, Javitt, DC (2012). Schizophrenia, culture and neuropsychology: sensory deficits, language impairments and social functioning in Chinese-speaking schizophrenia patients. Psychological Medicine 42, 14851494.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Kantrowitz supplementary material

Kantrowitz supplementary material

Download Kantrowitz supplementary material(File)
File 25.1 KB