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Abnormal laterality in schizophrenics and their parents
E S Grosh1, N M Docherty, B E Wexler
1Yale University Child Study Center, New Haven, CT 06520-8009.
Schizophrenia Research
|January 1, 1995
Summary
Schizophrenic patients and their parents show reduced right ear advantage (REA) on language tasks, indicating shared cerebral function abnormalities. Schizophrenics exhibit further REA reduction with negative emotional words.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- Schizophrenia is associated with abnormal lateralized cerebral function.
- Previous research indicates a lack of normal right ear-left hemisphere perceptual advantage in schizophrenics on language tasks.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate perceptual asymmetry in non-schizophrenic parents of schizophrenic patients.
- To compare hemispheric activation patterns between schizophrenics, their parents, and controls.
Main Methods:
- Dichotic word tests measuring perceptual asymmetry and right ear advantage (REA).
- Tests included neutral, positive, and negative emotional valence words.
- Comparison of REA across schizophrenics (n=10), parents (n=18), and controls (n=10).
Main Results:
- Parents showed a lower REA than controls, similar to their schizophrenic offspring.
- Schizophrenics exhibited a significantly lower REA than parents when processing negative emotional words (p=0.005).
- Parents' REA was more similar to controls than to schizophrenics on emotional word tests.
Conclusions:
- Schizophrenics and their parents share baseline hemispheric activation abnormalities.
- Schizophrenics show a unique decrease in left hemisphere activation when processing negative emotional stimuli.
- Findings suggest distinct patterns of cerebral dysfunction related to emotional processing in schizophrenia.