A combined measure for detection of schizotaxia

Résumé 0

"This study falls within research on schizotaxia, or neurocognitive risk markers of schizophreniaspectrum disorders, and its usefulness for early prevention strategies. Two samples of 60 adults and 65children and adolescents, with some genetic or psychosocial high-risk individuals among them, wereexamined to compare the relationship between schizotypy dimensions and risk factors, andneurocognitive performance. One of the most practical aspects of this study was the proposal of acombined and straightforward measure of liability to schizophrenia spectrum disorders, in contrast tothe current high availability of neurocognitive markers. For that purpose, several psychometricanalyses were made exploring schizotypy dimensions, as well as 16 measures of cortical functions(executive, attentional, working memory and general cognitive functioning tasks) in adults and 20measures in adolescents. In keeping with previous research, our results hypothetically indicate that themost accurate measure of schizotaxia combines negative traits of schizotypy, in the range of percentile90 or higher in the Introvertive Anhedonia subscale of the O-LIFE or percentile 85 or higher in theNegative Schizotypy subscale of the MSTQ and, on the other hand, a score of 5 or higher in acombined neurocognitive deficit scale in adults and 6 or higher in adolescents (the number of measuresexceeding the threshold of deficit of the distribution scores). Moreover, some other independentmeasures of clinical and social function, and follow-up studies, are necessary to confirm the predictivevalidity of this measure of schizotaxia."