Towards an understanding of sensory soft signs of schizophrenia

Neurological soft signs are considered to be non-localizing findings and clinical neurodysfunctional correlates of schizophrenia. Sensory signs in 21 chronic schizophrenic patients were compared with those of healthy subjects. The schizophrenic patients differed significantly from the controls in graphesthesia testing; there was no clear-cut impairment of other somatic sensory modalities. The graphesthesia learning effect was weaker in the patient group. No unequivocal correlation could be found between psychopathology or course variables and dysgraphesthesia. The authors hypothesize that an impairment in graphesthesia testing may reflect a working memory deficit in schizophrenics.