Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T07:32:01.906Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lateralised semantic and indirect semantic priming effects in people with schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Matthias Weisbrod ,
Sabine Maier ,
Sabine Harig ,
Ulrike Himmelsbach  and
Manfred Spitzer
Matthias Weisbrod*
Affiliation:
University of Heidelberg, Psychiatric Hospital
Sabine Maier
Affiliation:
University of Heidelberg, Psychiatric Hospital
Sabine Harig
Affiliation:
University of Heidelberg, Psychiatric Hospital
Ulrike Himmelsbach
Affiliation:
University of Heidelberg, Psychiatric Hospital
Manfred Spitzer
Affiliation:
University of Ulm, Psychiatric Hospital
*
Matthias Weisbrod, MD, Psychiatrische Universitätsklinik, Voss-Strasse 4, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany. Tel: 06221-562745. Fax: 06221-563477 e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

In schizophrenia, disturbances in the development of physiological hemisphere asymmetry are assumed to play a pathogenetic role. The most striking difference between hemispheres is in language processing. The left hemisphere is superior in the use of syntactic or semantic information, whereas the right hemisphere uses contextual information more effectively.

Method

Using psycholinguistic experimental techniques, semantic associations were examined in 38 control subjects, 24 non-thought-disordered and 16 thought-disordered people with schizophrenia, for both hemispheres separately.

Results

Direct semantic priming did not differ between the hemispheres in any of the groups. Only thought-disordered people showed significant indirect semantic priming in the left hemisphere.

Conclusions

The results support: (a) a prominent role of the right hemisphere for remote associations; (b) enhanced spreading of semantic associations in thought-disordered subjects; and (c) disorganisation of the functional asymmetry of semantic processing in thought-disordered subjects.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 172 , Issue 2 , February 1998 , pp. 142 - 146
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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

Abdullaev, Y. G. & Posner, M. I. (1997) Time course of activating brain areas in generating verbal associations. Psychological Science, 8, 56–59.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edn) (DSM-IV). Washington. DC: APA.Google Scholar
Bleuler, E. (1911) Dementia Praecox (I. Aufl. edn). Leipzig, Wien: Franz Deuticke.Google Scholar
Brownell, H. H. (1988) Appreciation of metaphoric and connotative word meaning by brain-damaged patients. In Right Hemisphere Contributions to Lexical Semantics (ed. Chiarello, C.), pp. 19–31. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Chiarello, C. & Richards, L. (1992) Another look at categorical priming in the cerebral hemispheres. Neuropsychologia, 30, 381–392.Google Scholar
Crow, T. J. (1990) Temporal lobe asymmetries as the key of the etiology of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 16, 433–443.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crow, T. J. (1996) Sexual selection as the mechanism of evolution of Machiavellian intelligence: A Darwinian theory of the origins of psychosis. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 10, 77–87.Google Scholar
Hellige, J. B. (1993) Hemispheric Asymmetry Cambridge. MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Henik, A. Priel, B. & Umansky, R. (1992) Attention and automaticity in semantic processing of schizophrenic patients. Neuropsychiatry Neuropsychology and Behavioral Neurology, 5, 161–169 Google Scholar
Jaynes, J. (1976) The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Kent, G. H. & Rosanoff, A. J. (1910) A study of associations in insanity (parts I and II). American Journal of Insanity, 66/67, 37–47, 317–390.Google Scholar
Kwapil, T. R. Hegley, D. C. Chapman, L. J. et al (1990) Facilitation of word recognition by semantic priming in schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 99, 215–221.Google Scholar
Maher, B. A. Manschreck, T. C. Hoover, T. M. et al (1987) Thought disorder and measured features of language production in schizophrenia. In Positive and Negative Symptoms in Psychosis: Description. Research and Further Directions (eds Harvey, P. & Walker, E.), pp. 195–215. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Manschreck, T. C. Maher, B. A. Milavetz, J. J. et al (1988) Semantic priming in thought disordered schizophrenic patients. Schizophrenia Research, I, 61–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milberg, W. & Blumstein, S. E. (1981) Lexical decision and aphasia: Evidence for semantic processing. Brain and Language, 14, 371–385.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nakagawa, A. (1991) Role of anterior and posterior attention networks in hemispheric asymmetries during lexical decisions. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 3, 313–321.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ober, B. A. Vinogradov, S. & Shenaut, G. K. (1995) Semantic priming of category relations in schizophrenia. Neuropsychology, 9, 220–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oldfield, R. (1971) The assessment and analysis of h andedness: The Edinburgh Inventory Neuropsychologia. 9, 97–113.Google Scholar
Overall, J. E. & Gorham, D. R. (1962) The brief psychiatric rating scale. Psychological Reports, 19, 799–812.Google Scholar
Ruoff, A. (1990) Häufigkeitswörterbuch gesprochener Sprache (2nd edn). Tübingen: Niemeyer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spitzer, M. (1997) A cognitive neuroscience view of schizophrenic thought disorder. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 23, 29–50.Google Scholar
Spitzer, M. Braun, U. Maier, S. et al (1993) Indirect semantic priming in schizophrenic patients. Schizophrenia Research, II, 71–80.Google Scholar
Thomas, P. (1995) Thought disorder or communication disorder. Linguistic science provides a new approach. British Journal of Psychiatry, 166, 287–290.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
World Health Organization (1978) Mental Disorders: Glossary and Guide to their Classification in Accordance with the Ninth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9). Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.