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Current Opinion in Psychiatry May 2020After more than a century of neuroscience research, reproducible, clinically relevant biomarkers for schizophrenia have not yet been established. This article reviews... (Review)
Review
PURPOSE OF REVIEW
After more than a century of neuroscience research, reproducible, clinically relevant biomarkers for schizophrenia have not yet been established. This article reviews current advances in evaluating the use of language as a diagnostic or prognostic tool in schizophrenia.
RECENT FINDINGS
The development of computational linguistic tools to quantify language disturbances is rapidly gaining ground in the field of schizophrenia research. Current applications are the use of semantic space models and acoustic analyses focused on phonetic markers. These features are used in machine learning models to distinguish patients with schizophrenia from healthy controls or to predict conversion to psychosis in high-risk groups, reaching accuracy scores (generally ranging from 80 to 90%) that exceed clinical raters. Other potential applications for a language biomarker in schizophrenia are monitoring of side effects, differential diagnostics and relapse prevention.
SUMMARY
Language disturbances are a key feature of schizophrenia. Although in its early stages, the emerging field of research focused on computational linguistics suggests an important role for language analyses in the diagnosis and prognosis of schizophrenia. Spoken language as a biomarker for schizophrenia has important advantages because it can be objectively and reproducibly quantified. Furthermore, language analyses are low-cost, time efficient and noninvasive in nature.
Topics: Biomarkers; Humans; Language; Prognosis; Schizophrenia; Verbal Behavior
PubMed: 32049766
DOI: 10.1097/YCO.0000000000000595 -
The Journals of Gerontology. Series B,... Dec 2022There is evidence that loneliness is detrimental to cognitive health. Most studies, however, do not consider the association between loneliness and cognition in the...
OBJECTIVES
There is evidence that loneliness is detrimental to cognitive health. Most studies, however, do not consider the association between loneliness and cognition in the context of close relationships, such as a spouse or romantic partner. This study examines loneliness, experienced by both the individual and their romantic partner, and cognitive performance.
METHODS
Data were from 24,689 opposite-sex couples (49,378 participants) from 28 countries in the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe. Each couple participant reported loneliness and completed memory and verbal fluency tasks. A multilevel sex-stratified analysis was used to account for the nested data structure and evaluate actor and partner effects of loneliness on cognitive performance for male and female partners.
RESULTS
Consistent with the literature, there were small actor effects of loneliness on memory and verbal fluency for both males and females: A person's own loneliness was associated negatively with their cognitive performance on both tasks. There were also small partner effects: A person with a partner who was lonely tended to have worse cognitive performance above and beyond their own loneliness. Actor and partners effects were similar for male and female partners, replicated in most countries, and generally held controlling for age, education, household size, and disease burden. For memory, loneliness effects were slightly stronger among older participants.
DISCUSSION
Both the experience of loneliness and loneliness of a partner have a negative association with cognitive health.
Topics: Female; Humans; Male; Aging; Loneliness; Memory, Episodic; Multilevel Analysis; Sexual Partners; Surveys and Questionnaires; Verbal Behavior
PubMed: 35758343
DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbac086 -
Psychiatry Research Jan 2021While it is well established that individuals with schizophrenia exhibit a wide range of neurocognitive deficits, there is significant heterogeneity in this regard....
While it is well established that individuals with schizophrenia exhibit a wide range of neurocognitive deficits, there is significant heterogeneity in this regard. Impairments in verbal fluency appear to present consistently across most individuals with the illness. The present study examined the stability of verbal fluency abilities in chronic schizophrenia longitudinally. It was hypothesized that semantic but not phonemic verbal fluency performance would be stable over one year. Data was extracted from a larger study that followed 53 outpatients (70% male; mean age = 39.2 years) diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. At each testing interval (baseline, 6, and 12 months), the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia was administered, which included phonemic (i.e., F, S) and semantic (i.e., animals) verbal fluency tasks. No significant differences were found across time points for semantic and phonemic verbal fluency with respect to mean number of words generated, clustering, and switching. The findings provide evidence of stability in semantic and phonemic verbal fluency abilities in chronic schizophrenia. Moving forward, it would be valuable to examine verbal fluency performance longitudinally across multiple stages of illness (i.e., clinically high-risk to chronic schizophrenia).
Topics: Adult; Cognition; Female; Humans; Language Disorders; Male; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; Neuropsychology; Outpatients; Psychotic Disorders; Schizophrenia; Semantics; Verbal Behavior
PubMed: 33189369
DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113528 -
Psychological Medicine Aug 2020Longitudinal studies of first episode of psychosis (FEP) patients are critical to understanding the dynamic clinical factors influencing functional outcomes; negative...
BACKGROUND
Longitudinal studies of first episode of psychosis (FEP) patients are critical to understanding the dynamic clinical factors influencing functional outcomes; negative symptoms and verbal memory (VM) deficits are two such factors that remain a therapeutic challenge. This study uses white-gray matter contrast at the inner edge of the cortex, in addition to cortical thickness, to probe changes in microstructure and their relation with negative symptoms and possible intersections with verbal memory.
METHODS
T1-weighted images and clinical data were collected longitudinally for patients (N = 88) over a two-year period. Cognitive data were also collected at baseline. Relationships between baseline VM (immediate/delayed recall) and rate of change in two negative symptom dimensions, amotivation and expressivity, were assessed at the behavioral level, as well as at the level of brain structure.
RESULTS
VM, particularly immediate recall, was significantly and positively associated with a steeper rate of expressivity symptom decline (r = 0.32, q = 0.012). Significant interaction effects between baseline delayed recall and change in expressivity were uncovered in somatomotor regions bilaterally for both white-gray matter contrast and cortical thickness. Furthermore, interaction effects between immediate recall and change in expressivity on cortical thickness rates were uncovered across higher-order regions of the language processing network.
CONCLUSIONS
This study shows common neural correlates of language-related brain areas underlying expressivity and VM in FEP, suggesting deficits in these domains may be more linked to speech production rather than general cognitive capacity. Together, white-gray matter contrast and cortical thickness may optimally inform clinical investigations aiming to capture peri-cortical microstructural changes.
Topics: Adult; Case-Control Studies; Cerebral Cortex; Female; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Longitudinal Studies; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Memory Disorders; Mental Recall; Neuropsychological Tests; Psychotic Disorders; Verbal Behavior; Young Adult
PubMed: 31456533
DOI: 10.1017/S0033291719002071 -
Preschool physical activity and fitness predicts conceptual, verbal and perceptual skills at school.Journal of Sports Sciences Sep 2021This study investigated longitudinal relationships between physical activity (PA), fitness and cognitive performance at early years. In total, 147 children at the age of...
This study investigated longitudinal relationships between physical activity (PA), fitness and cognitive performance at early years. In total, 147 children at the age of 6.6 and 7.6 years participated in the study. PA and sedentary behaviour (SB) were registered with accelerometer. Skinfold thickness measurements were used to assess body composition. Children's cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), muscular strength and speed-agility fitness was assessed using PREFIT fitness test battery and static balance by EUROFIT test battery. Cognitive skills were measured with modified Boehm-3 test. Linear regression analyses showed that PA at the age of 6.6 years was positively, while SB was negatively associated with the conceptual skills at the age of 7.6 years after adjusting for confounders. Positive associations were observed between CRF, lower-limbs strength relative to fat-free mass, static balance at the age of 6.6 years with perceptual skills at 7.6 years in unadjusted analysis. PA and fitness were not associated with verbal abilities. Physically active lifestyle and CRF, relative explosive strength of the lower limbs, balance at 6.6 years in kindergarten predict conceptual and perceptual skills, but does not predict verbal abilities 1 year later at first grade in school. SB affects negatively conceptual skills.
Topics: Accelerometry; Body Composition; Cardiorespiratory Fitness; Child; Cognition; Estonia; Exercise; Exercise Test; Humans; Muscle Strength; Schools; Sedentary Behavior; Verbal Behavior
PubMed: 33825616
DOI: 10.1080/02640414.2021.1912451 -
PloS One 2021The present research examined the extent to which transmale individuals' functional brain organization resembles that of their assigned sex or gender identity....
The present research examined the extent to which transmale individuals' functional brain organization resembles that of their assigned sex or gender identity. Cisgender-female, cisgender-male, and transmale participants, who were assigned female sex but did not have a female gender identity, were compared in terms of effects that have been observed in cisgender individuals: task-domain effects, in which males perform better than females on spatial tasks and females perform better than males on verbal tasks; and hemisphere-asymmetry effects, in which males show larger differences between the left and right hemispheres than females. In addition, the present research measured participants' intelligence in order to control for potential moderating effects. Participants performed spatial (mental rotation) and verbal (lexical decision) tasks presented to each hemisphere using a divided-visual field paradigm, and then completed an intelligence assessment. In the mental-rotation task, cismale and transmale participants performed better than cisfemale participants, however this group difference was explained by intelligence scores, with higher scores predicting better performance. In the lexical-decision task, cismale and transmale participants exhibited a greater left-hemisphere advantage than cisfemales, and this difference was not affected by intelligence scores. Taken together, results do not support task-domain effects when intelligence is accounted for; however, they do demonstrate a hemisphere-asymmetry effect in the verbal domain that is moderated by gender identity and not assigned sex.
Topics: Female; Functional Laterality; Gender Identity; Humans; Male; Spatial Behavior; Transgender Persons; Verbal Behavior; Young Adult
PubMed: 34874973
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260542 -
Behavior Modification Jan 2020We compared clinical outcomes in a treatment group of 98 individuals who received between 8 and 15 weekly hours ( = 10.6; = 1.7) of applied behavior analysis (ABA)...
We compared clinical outcomes in a treatment group of 98 individuals who received between 8 and 15 weekly hours ( = 10.6; = 1.7) of applied behavior analysis (ABA) intervention with a comparison group of 73 individuals who received another provision, including some ABA, (between 1.4-8 weekly hours, = 5.7; = 1.6). After 2 years, the treatment group made greater gains than the comparison group on language and social skills, and other areas assessed by the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP). We evaluated the outcome on adaptive skills for a smaller sample of participants using the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales II (VABS), but found no significant differences between the treatment ( = 17) and comparison groups ( = 11). Although the treatment group made important and clinically meaningful gains, the gains were moderate. These findings underline the importance of intervention intensity and provide further support for a dose-response relationship between ABA intervention hours and outcomes.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Applied Behavior Analysis; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Child; Child, Preschool; Female; Humans; Infant; Male; Social Skills; Treatment Outcome; Verbal Behavior; Young Adult
PubMed: 30136599
DOI: 10.1177/0145445518796204 -
Journal of Speech, Language, and... Jul 2020Purpose Emotional verbal fluency (Emo-VF) has the potential to expand neuropsychological assessment by providing information about affective memory retrieval. The...
Purpose Emotional verbal fluency (Emo-VF) has the potential to expand neuropsychological assessment by providing information about affective memory retrieval. The usability of Emo-VF is limited, however, by significant variations in task administration and the lack of information about Emo-VF responses. This study investigated verbal productivity and the lexical-semantic properties of responses on positive and negative Emo-VF tasks. Comparing Emo-VF to non-Emo-VF tasks used regularly in neuropsychological assessment provided additional information about the basic characteristics of Emo-VF tasks. Method Twenty-five adult native speakers provided verbal responses to three Emo-VF ("happy," "sad," "negative emotions") and two non-Emo-VF categories ("animals," "things people do"). Verbal productivity was measured at the word and syllable levels. Multiple large-scale data corpora were used to estimate the lexical-semantic properties of the verbal responses. Results There was a robust positivity bias in verbal productivity within Emo-VF tasks. Emo-VF tasks tended to elicit longer words than "animals" and "things people do," which might impact the results of verbal productivity analyses, especially in comparisons with "things people do." Within Emo-VF tasks, negative Emo-VF elicited words from a wider range of valence than positive Emo-VF tasks. Similarities (e.g., word length and complexity) and differences (e.g., concreteness, age of acquisition) were found between positive and negative Emo-VF tasks. Conclusions The study provided information about the basic characteristics of Emo-VF tasks, which included evidence for a robust positivity bias, suggestions for analyses of verbal productivity (e.g., consideration of word length), and lexical-semantic properties associated with positive and negative Emo-VF tasks using corpora data.
Topics: Emotions; Memory; Neuropsychological Tests; Semantics; Verbal Behavior
PubMed: 32603619
DOI: 10.1044/2020_JSLHR-19-00276 -
Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology :... Feb 2022Phonological and semantic verbal fluency (VF) tasks are frequently used to assess language and executive functions in both clinical and research settings. F, A, and S...
OBJECTIVE
Phonological and semantic verbal fluency (VF) tasks are frequently used to assess language and executive functions in both clinical and research settings. F, A, and S are the most commonly used letters in phonological tasks across languages and cultures. Unfortunately, the lack of norms for the native Spanish population for these letters, and for certain semantic categories such as "proper names," may lead to misinterpretation of scores due to demographic differences. The aim of the present study was to provide normative data for F, A, and S and for "proper names," "animals," and "fruits and vegetables" for the native Spanish population.
METHOD
257 healthy subjects took part in the study (ages: 17-100 years, 3-20 years of education). Correlation, multiple regression, and t-tests were used to select the most appropriate variables for stratification.
RESULTS
Education was the best predictor of performance in all tasks, followed by age. Given that t-test results showed no differences related to gender, with the only exception of the semantic category "animals," this variable was not considered for stratification. Consequently, the data were stratified in two education levels (<13, ≥13 years of education) and in two age levels (<60, ≥60) within the low-educational level group. Mean, standard deviation, and percentile scores for each group are provided.
CONCLUSIONS
The present norms provide a reference for clinicians assessing VF. This data may also facilitate comparisons with other normative studies in cross-cultural and cross-linguistic research.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Animals; Educational Status; Humans; Language; Language Tests; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; Semantics; Verbal Behavior; Young Adult
PubMed: 34323264
DOI: 10.1093/arclin/acab056 -
The Journal of Thoracic and... Mar 2023
Topics: Humans; Communication; Verbal Behavior
PubMed: 33888312
DOI: 10.1016/j.jtcvs.2021.03.071