Deficits in nominal reference identify thought disordered speech in a narrative production task

Formal thought disorder (TD) is a neuropathology manifest in formal language dysfunction, but few behavioural linguistic studies exist. These have highlighted problems in the domain of semantics and more specifically of reference. Here we aimed for a more complete and systematic linguistic model of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2018-08, Vol.13 (8), p.e0201545-e0201545
Main Authors: Sevilla, Gabriel, Rosselló, Joana, Salvador, Raymond, Sarró, Salvador, López-Araquistain, Laura, Pomarol-Clotet, Edith, Hinzen, Wolfram
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Analysis
Autism
Biology and Life Sciences
Biomarkers
Cognition & reasoning
Cognition Disorders - diagnosis
Communication disorders
Complexity
Diagnosis
Female
Formal thought disorder
Humans
Language
Language and thought
Linguistic analysis (Linguistics)
Linguistics
Male
Medical imaging
Medicine and Health Sciences
Memory
Mental disorders
Middle Aged
Narration
Narrative
Neuroimaging
Neurology
Neuropsychological Tests
Psychiatry
Psychosis
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia - complications
Schizophrenic Language
Semantics
Social Sciences
Speech
Speech Disorders - diagnosis
Studies
Thinking
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Summary:Formal thought disorder (TD) is a neuropathology manifest in formal language dysfunction, but few behavioural linguistic studies exist. These have highlighted problems in the domain of semantics and more specifically of reference. Here we aimed for a more complete and systematic linguistic model of TD, focused on (i) a more in-depth analysis of anomalies of reference as depending on the grammatical construction type in which they occur, and (ii) measures of formal grammatical complexity and errors. Narrative speech obtained from 40 patients with schizophrenia, 20 with TD and 20 without, and from 14 healthy controls matched on pre-morbid IQ, was rated blindly. Results showed that of 10 linguistic variables annotated, 4 showed significant differences between groups, including the two patient groups. These all concerned mis-uses of noun phrases (NPs) for purposes of reference, but showed sensitivity to how NPs were classed: definite and pronominal forms of reference were more affected than indefinite and non-pronominal (lexical) NPs. None of the measures of formal grammatical complexity and errors distinguished groups. We conclude that TD exhibits a specific and differentiated linguistic profile, which can illuminate TD neuro-cognitively and inform future neuroimaging studies, and can have clinical utility as a linguistic biomarker.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0201545