hrvatski

Lexical-semantic categorisation in patients of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder, affecting 1% of the population, characterized and manifested by various symptoms. The symptoms can be divided into positive and negative ones, depending on the increase or decrease in patient’s normal functioning. Positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, and confusion of thought, and patients showing these symptoms generally react well to (clinical) treatment. Negative symptoms, on the other hand, include social and emotional dullness, deprived speech, decreased expressiveness, and avolition, and the treatment of such patients seems to be less effective. Language production and reception impairments are one of the main clinical and diagnostic features of schizophrenia. The impairments include speech deficits caused by cognitive dissociation, as well as deficits in lexical-semantic processing. The speech deficits, depending on the severity, are manifested as unrelated sentences or as errors of a higher discourse level, as well as repetitions of particular linguistic elements, rendering the speech unintelligible. Furthermore, previous research has shown that patients suffering from schizophrenia achieve less successful results in numerous lexical- semantic tasks compared to a control group, with these deviations being most evident in the production of atypical or unrelated lexical units belonging to specific semantic categories. This study aimed to examine the differences in production and reception of lexical-semantic categories in schizophrenia patients. Lexical-semantic processing implies the occurrence of certain semantic relations in the mental lexicon. The study included ten patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and a control group of ten participants. The study included two types of language tasks ; the first one aimed at language production, and the second one aimed at language reception of lexical-semantic categories. The hypotheses claimed that patients with schizophrenia would obtain lower results on both tasks compared to the control group, and that patients with schizophrenia would obtain better results in the tasks aimed at language reception, that the tasks aimed at language production. Since recent studies have shown that schizophrenia causes a disorganization in the lexical- semantic system compared to the healthy subjects, it is claimed that the lexical- semantic system is disrupted, partially, due to the deficits in the language category- organization. The obtained results are interpreted in line with the most recent psycholinguistics theories. Assessing specific language impairments in the lexical-semantic system can significantly contribute to clinical treatments (in schizophrenia).

schizophrenia ; lexical‐semantic categorization ; language production ; language reception

nije evidentirano

engleski

Lexical-semantic categorisation in patients of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder, affecting 1% of the population, characterized and manifested by various symptoms. The symptoms can be divided into positive and negative ones, depending on the increase or decrease in patient’s normal functioning. Positive symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, and confusion of thought, and patients showing these symptoms generally react well to (clinical) treatment. Negative symptoms, on the other hand, include social and emotional dullness, deprived speech, decreased expressiveness, and avolition, and the treatment of such patients seems to be less effective. Language production and reception impairments are one of the main clinical and diagnostic features of schizophrenia. The impairments include speech deficits caused by cognitive dissociation, as well as deficits in lexical-semantic processing. The speech deficits, depending on the severity, are manifested as unrelated sentences or as errors of a higher discourse level, as well as repetitions of particular linguistic elements, rendering the speech unintelligible. Furthermore, previous research has shown that patients suffering from schizophrenia achieve less successful results in numerous lexical- semantic tasks compared to a control group, with these deviations being most evident in the production of atypical or unrelated lexical units belonging to specific semantic categories. This study aimed to examine the differences in production and reception of lexical-semantic categories in schizophrenia patients. Lexical-semantic processing implies the occurrence of certain semantic relations in the mental lexicon. The study included ten patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and a control group of ten participants. The study included two types of language tasks ; the first one aimed at language production, and the second one aimed at language reception of lexical-semantic categories. The hypotheses claimed that patients with schizophrenia would obtain lower results on both tasks compared to the control group, and that patients with schizophrenia would obtain better results in the tasks aimed at language reception, that the tasks aimed at language production. Since recent studies have shown that schizophrenia causes a disorganization in the lexical- semantic system compared to the healthy subjects, it is claimed that the lexical- semantic system is disrupted, partially, due to the deficits in the language category- organization. The obtained results are interpreted in line with the most recent psycholinguistics theories. Assessing specific language impairments in the lexical-semantic system can significantly contribute to clinical treatments (in schizophrenia).

schizophrenia ; lexical‐semantic categorization ; language production ; language reception

nije evidentirano