Cognitive functioning in familial and nonfamilial groups at high-risk for schizophrenia

Differences in the cognitive profiles of schizophrenic individuals who are family history positive and those who are family history negative have been reported throughout the literature. The purpose of this study was to clarify the cognitive deficits that characterize familial and nonfamilial groups at high-risk for schizophrenia. High-risk was defined as (1) Genetic relatedness to an individual with schizophrenia, or (2) Extreme scores on a measure of schizotypy (i.e., Chapman Scales of Psychosis Proneness). Twenty-three subjects were administered a battery of neuropsychological tests. ANOVAs revealed a significant interaction effect on a measure of verbal learning and a double dissociation on auditory and visual working memory tasks. It appears that familial risk may be more associated with deficits on tasks that rely upon rapid encoding and organization of visual information, while nonfamilial risk demonstrated a greater association with abnormalities in left hemisphere mediated verbal abilities.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Year

2003

Author dc:creator

• Warnick, Erin L

Contributors dc:contributor

• Daniel N. Allen

Statement dc:rights

• IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/rtds/1519

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:oasis.library.unlv.edu:rtds-2518