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Background: Higher levels of circulating oestrogens in women and testosterone in men have been shown to have a protective effect against the clinical manifestations of schizophrenia, mostly with respect to negative symptomatology. Certain studies suggest that they also have a protective effect against the neuropsychological impairment observed in the disease. We investigated whether greater prenatal exposure to estrogens in women and to testosterone in men, reflected by the 2D:4D ratio, was similarly associated with decreased negative symptomatology and improved neuropsychological functioning in patients., Method: 51 schizophrenia patients and 50 healthy participants were administered a neuropsychological battery. The 2D:4D ratio was measured in all participants. Positive, negative, and affective symptoms were assessed in patients. Regression analyses were conducted separately in male and female subgroups., Results: No associations with positive symptoms were revealed. In male patients, the 2D:4D ratio was positively associated with avolition and inversely associated with anxiety. In female patients, it was inversely associated with alogia, and tended to be positively associated with depression. No association between higher prenatal concentration of the relevant sex hormone and improved neuropsychological performance emerged in patients., Conclusions: Higher concentrations of prenatal testosterone in male patients, and prenatal oestrogens in female patients, are associated with a decrement in certain aspects of negative symptomatology. In addition, prenatal sex hormone concentration seems to be associated with predisposition to anxiety in male patients, and to depression in female patients., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Abnormalities in visual processes have been observed in schizophrenia patients and have been associated with alteration of the lateral occipital complex and visual cortex. However, the relationship of these abnormalities with clinical symptomatology is largely unknown., Methods: We investigated the brain activity associated with object perception in schizophrenia. Pictures of common objects were presented to 26 healthy participants (age=36.9; 11 females) and 20 schizophrenia patients (age=39.9; 8 females) in an fMRI study., Results: In the healthy sample the presentation of pictures yielded significant activation (pFWE (cluster)<0.001) of the bilateral fusiform gyrus, bilateral lingual gyrus, and bilateral middle occipital gyrus. In patients, the bilateral fusiform gyrus and bilateral lingual gyrus were significantly activated (pFWE (cluster)<0.001), but not so the middle occipital gyrus. However, significant bilateral activation of the middle occipital gyrus (pFWE (cluster)<0.05) was revealed when illness duration was controlled for. Depression was significantly associated with increased activation, and anxiety with decreased activation, of the right middle occipital gyrus and several other brain areas in the patient group. No association with positive or negative symptoms was revealed., Conclusions: Illness duration accounts for the weak activation of the middle occipital gyrus in patients during picture presentation. Affective symptoms, but not positive or negative symptoms, influence the activation of the right middle occipital gyrus and other brain areas., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Previous research has revealed the contribution of decreased processing speed and reduced working memory span in verbal and visual memory impairment in patients with schizophrenia. The role of affective symptoms in verbal memory has also emerged in a few studies. The authors designed a picture recognition task to investigate the impact of these factors on visual encoding., Method: Two types of pictures (black and white vs. colored) were presented under 2 different conditions of context encoding (either displayed at a specific location or in association with another visual stimulus). It was assumed that the process of encoding associated pictures was more effortful than that of encoding pictures that were presented alone. Working memory span and processing speed were assessed., Results: In the patient group, working memory span was significantly associated with the recognition of the associated pictures but not significantly with that of the other pictures. Controlling for processing speed eliminated the patients' deficit in the recognition of the colored pictures and greatly reduced their deficit in the recognition of the black-and-white pictures. The recognition of the black-and-white pictures was inversely related to anxiety in men and to depression in women., Conclusions: Working memory span constrains the effortful visual encoding processes in patients, whereas processing speed decrement accounts for most of their visual encoding deficit. Affective symptoms also have an impact on visual encoding, albeit differently in men and women., (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.)

Numerous studies have indicated that thought disorganization in schizophrenia is associated with an enhanced semantic priming effect. This suggests abnormal functioning of the semantic network in these patients, with disinhibited spreading of semantic activation. We investigated whether thought disorganization is also associated with atypical responses in the production of semantic category exemplars. An exemplar production task was administered to 43 patients with schizophrenia and 24 healthy controls. The names of 16 semantic categories were provided, and the participants were requested to produce an exemplar for each category. The typicality of the response was rated according to norms. Higher ratings of thought disorganization were associated with the production of more atypical exemplars. In addition, the patients with high thought disorganization scores were significantly more atypical in their responses than were the healthy controls. In contrast, the patients with low thought disorganization scores were equivalent to the healthy controls. Higher ratings of affective flattening were associated with the production of less atypical exemplars. The results corroborate, within a different paradigm than semantic priming, the theory that thought disorganization is associated with faster and more distant connections within the semantic network. This effect is counteracted by affective flattening., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)