Establishment of local norms and standardization of the MATRICS consensus cognitive battery in Chinese adolescents

The MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) is a widely used, standardized tool for assessing cognitive impairments in schizophrenia clinical trials. However, normative data for the MCCB in healthy adolescents remain scarce. This study establishes the first regionally representative norms for the MCCB in Chinese adolescents aged 11-16 years.

Using stratified cluster sampling, we recruited 1,244 participants from Xiaogan City, demographically matched to regional population statistics. The Chinese-adapted MCCB assessed seven cognitive domains through nine subtests. Comprehensive analyses evaluated age, gender, and education effects using ANCOVA and non-parametric tests for non-normal distributions.

Our analyses revealed distinct developmental patterns across cognitive domains. Significant age-related improvements emerged in most measures (all p<0.05 except Trail Making Test-Part A), demonstrating continuous rather than stage-like progression. Gender differences were observed, with males outperforming in cognitive domains of processing speed, reasoning and problem solving, working memory and attention/vigilance, while females showed advantages in visual learning. After adjusting for gender, age initially exhibited significant associations with all cognitive tests; however, upon further adjustment for education, the effect of age was no longer significant in eight of the nine tests.

This study establishes the first locally representative normative standards for the MCCB in Chinese adolescents, addressing a crucial gap in culturally sensitive cognitive assessment tools. Our findings demonstrate the complex interplay of age, gender, and educational factors in cognitive development, providing clinically valuable benchmarks for early detection of schizophrenia in this population.