Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) are a characteristic symptom in schizophrenia, and also occur in the general, non-clinical population. In schizophrenia patients, several specific cognitive deficits, such as in speech processing, working memory, source memory, attention, inhibition, episodic memory and self-monitoring have been associated with auditory verbal hallucinations. Such associations are interesting, as they may identify specific cognitive traits that constitute a predisposition for AVH. However, it is difficult to disentangle a specific relation with AVH in patients with schizophrenia, as so many other factors can affect the performance on cognitive tests. Examining the cognitive profile of healthy individuals experiencing AVH may reveal a more direct association between AVH and aberrant cognitive functioning in a specific domain. For the current study, performance in executive functioning, memory (both short- and long-term), processing speed, spatial ability, lexical access, abstract reasoning, language and intelligence performance was compared between 101 healthy individuals with AVH and 101 healthy controls, matched for gender, age, handedness and education. Although performance of both groups was within the normal range, not clinically impaired, significant differences between the groups were found in the verbal domain as well as in executive functioning. Performance on all other cognitive domains was similar in both groups. The predisposition to experience AVH is associated with lower performance in executive functioning and aberrant language performance. This association might be related to difficulties in the inhibition of irrelevant verbal information.
Our hypothesis that lifetime psychotic features would be associated with pro-inflammatory monocyte gene expression was not confirmed. In an explorative analysis we found: (i) a possible relationship between pro-inflammatory gene expression and manic symptomatology; (ii) a differential immune activation related to age at onset and duration of illness; and (iii) support for the concept of an immune suppressive action of some of the mood-regulating medications.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.