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Pathways To Blunted Facial Affect In Negative Schizotypy: Social Motivation And Online Cognitive Resources, Tovah M.D. Cowan
Pathways To Blunted Facial Affect In Negative Schizotypy: Social Motivation And Online Cognitive Resources, Tovah M.D. Cowan
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
Schizotypy, a range of personality traits which confer liability for schizophrenia, is associated with significantly diminished social functioning and quality of life. Social dysfunction in all forms of schizotypy, including schizophrenia, is connected to blunted affect, or diminished expressivity, particularly facial expressions which are less frequent, intense, or long than typical. However, the mechanisms and treatments for blunted affect are, as yet, poorly understood and underdeveloped. In this project, two putative mechanisms of blunted affect were explored. The first involves cognitive load capacities, which are diminished in schizotypy, causing blunted affect – individuals do not have the cognitive resources to …
General Versus Person-Specific Models Of Psychotic-Like Symptoms, Thanh Phuoc Le
General Versus Person-Specific Models Of Psychotic-Like Symptoms, Thanh Phuoc Le
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disease and carries a profound burden of illness and disability. Schizotypy, reflecting personality traits associated with a vulnerability for schizophrenia-spectrum pathology, is characterized, in part, by a tendency to experience psychotic-like symptoms (PLS). Perceived social support, or lack thereof, plays a role in the intensity of PLS. Etiological mechanisms underlying PLS, such as monolithic social support, are putatively expected to be common across individuals sharing elevated schizotypal traits. This “nomothetic” model fails to appreciate that social support is multidimensional and likely idiographic in its effects on PLS. Another salient issue that arises when attempting to …
Social Capitalization As A Positive Emotion Regulation Strategy In Individuals At-Risk For Developing A Schizophrenia-Spectrum Disorder, Elana Klein Schwartz
Social Capitalization As A Positive Emotion Regulation Strategy In Individuals At-Risk For Developing A Schizophrenia-Spectrum Disorder, Elana Klein Schwartz
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
Extant literature indicates that emotional deficits, such as impaired emotion expression/experience, are prominent in schizophrenia-spectrum psychopathology and linked with poorer functional (e.g. social) outcomes. Interestingly, individuals exhibiting schizotypy, an underlying personality organization that confers a vulnerability to developing schizophrenia, report more abnormalities in emotion experience compared to healthy controls and individuals with schizophrenia, a phenomenon termed the “schizophrenia-spectrum emotion paradox.” To aid in the clarification of emotional abnormalities and explore the dynamic nature of emotion experience in individuals with schizotypy, the present study enrolled 93 college-aged individuals to examine positive emotion regulation through the use of social capitalization. In social …
Quantifying Coherence In A Transdiagnostic Sample: A Methodological Investigation Of Computationally-Derived Coherence Using Ambulatory Assessment, Taylor L. Fedechko
Quantifying Coherence In A Transdiagnostic Sample: A Methodological Investigation Of Computationally-Derived Coherence Using Ambulatory Assessment, Taylor L. Fedechko
LSU Master's Theses
Schizophrenia is a clinical diagnosis assigned to individuals that experience positive (e.g., hallucinations and delusions), negative (e.g., blunted affect), and disorganized (e.g., incoherent speech) symptoms. One particularly disabling symptom is incoherence, which is defined as the meaning-based relationship between ideas. This symptom can drastically affect an individual’s quality of life by affecting areas such as social and occupational functioning. Currently, the mechanism behind this symptom is unknown and requires further study. One way to examine incoherence is to understand its level of expression in other clinical populations. With the advent of computationally-derived natural language processing (NLP), coherence can be quantified …
The (B)Link Between Amotivation And Dopamine In Psychosis: What Phasic Eye Blink Rate Reveals, Jessica Elaina Mcgovern
The (B)Link Between Amotivation And Dopamine In Psychosis: What Phasic Eye Blink Rate Reveals, Jessica Elaina Mcgovern
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
Motivation deficits (i.e., avolition or amotivation) are a cardinal feature of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) and are linked to worse functional outcomes. Accumulating evidence implicates underactive dopamine responses in reward areas of the brain (e.g., striatum) in the etiology of amotivation. Phasic dopamine firing in the striatum purportedly has a role in increasing the perceived value of a potential reward that, in effect, helps “push” the organism toward initiating and persisting in the action to pursue rewards. Previous research has suggested that eye blink rate (EBR) may be a reliable and valid index of striatal dopamine. Amotivation (clinician-rated and self-reported) …
Attentional Deployment, Cognitive Control, And Reappraisal In Schizophrenia, Kyle Robert Mitchell
Attentional Deployment, Cognitive Control, And Reappraisal In Schizophrenia, Kyle Robert Mitchell
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
Recent studies posit that deficits in emotion regulation may lead to increased negative emotional experience in schizophrenia. While individuals with schizophrenia evidence a number of abnormalities in emotion regulation, it is unclear whether these deficits are discrete or related; furthermore, the mechanisms underlying these deficits are not clear. Cognitive control has been posited as an important mechanism supporting emotion regulation. The current study examined the relationship between attentional deployment and both lexical and self-reported indices of reappraisal, as well as the mediating role of cognitive control on this relationship in a sample of 22 individuals with psychotic disorders. A novel …
Vocal Expression In Schizophrenia: Examining The Role Of Vocal Accommodation In Clinical Ratings Of Speech, Thanh P. Le
Vocal Expression In Schizophrenia: Examining The Role Of Vocal Accommodation In Clinical Ratings Of Speech, Thanh P. Le
LSU Master's Theses
Diminished vocal expressivity, defined in terms of a diminution in speech production and intonation/emphasis, is a chronic symptom in schizophrenia. On interview-based measures of vocal deficits, clinicians typically rate patients with schizophrenia 4 to 6 SDs below their non-patient peers. However, recent studies utilizing objective computerized measures have failed to observe vocal expressivity deficits that approach this level. It may be that vocal deficits can only be understood within the boundaries of dyadic exchanges during interview-based assessments. Vocal accommodation, or the degree to which vocal characteristics (i.e., mean F0) between interlocutors synchronize over time, has been linked to enhanced social …
Examining The Role Of Episodic And Semantic Networks In Anhedonia: Applying The Accessibility Model Of Emotional Self-Report To Psychometrically-Defined Schizotypy, Kyle Robert Mitchell
Examining The Role Of Episodic And Semantic Networks In Anhedonia: Applying The Accessibility Model Of Emotional Self-Report To Psychometrically-Defined Schizotypy, Kyle Robert Mitchell
LSU Master's Theses
Individuals with schizophrenia exhibit a range of abnormalities in self-reported non-current experience of pleasure, but undisrupted current experience of pleasure. Several researchers have sought to address the mechanism of this deficit, yielding useful models of anhedonia. The accessibility model of emotional self-report suggests that deficits in hedonic response are due to differential activation of, and reliance upon, semantic and episodic memory systems. While this model has been proposed as an explanation of the deficits in hedonic response in schizophrenia, it has not been experimentally validated, and it remains to be seen whether the model will hold across the schizophrenia spectrum. …
A State-Level Analysis Of Deinstitutionalization And The Impact Of Chlorpromazine, Joni Maria Lee Pow
A State-Level Analysis Of Deinstitutionalization And The Impact Of Chlorpromazine, Joni Maria Lee Pow
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
US state mental hospitals were rapidly depopulated in the decades following 1955. This was a demographic phenomenon of major proportion. The introduction of antipsychotics in 1954 has often been considered instrumental in this population movement. To date, studies of the role of antipsychotics in deinstitutionalization have been state specific, methodologically weak, inconsistent in their findings and fail to consider inter-state differences which could reveal previously unknown causal variables. This study used US Census data and pooled cross sectional time-series analysis to estimate the impact of chlorpromazine and policy changes on mental hospital population movement. To that end, the population movement …
A Comparison Of Psychotic Symptoms Recorded In Patient Files Of Persons With A First Diagnosis Of Schizophrenia In 1930 And 1960 Cohorts Drawn From A Large State Hospital, Kristopher Michael Lee Henderson
A Comparison Of Psychotic Symptoms Recorded In Patient Files Of Persons With A First Diagnosis Of Schizophrenia In 1930 And 1960 Cohorts Drawn From A Large State Hospital, Kristopher Michael Lee Henderson
LSU Master's Theses
The growth of mental hospital populations during the 19th and 20th centuries along with the corresponding increase in the number of mental institutions is well documented. The cause of the growth is the subject of considerable debate. One hypothesis is that the growth in hospital population was due, in part, to an increase in the prevalence or incidence of schizophrenia. Another is that diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia changed with time in such a manner that increasing numbers of patients were given this diagnosis. The present study sought to address these issues in two ways: 1) by comparing the number and …
Effort-Based Decision-Making In Schizotypy, Jessica Elaina Mcgovern
Effort-Based Decision-Making In Schizotypy, Jessica Elaina Mcgovern
LSU Master's Theses
Avolition/apathy, defined as reduced initiation of or persistence in goal-directed behavior, is a pernicious, core negative symptom of schizophrenia. While deficits in effort-based decision-making have been proposed to underlie negative symptom deficits, it remains unknown whether subjective or objective motivation deficits are evident in individuals with elevated schizotypy, a trait associated with putative latent liability of developing psychosis. Thus, the present study examined whether and how objective and subjective motivation deficits manifest in individuals high (n = 57) versus low (n = 58) in schizotypy traits (based on a median-split of total experience scores on the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire –Brief …
Abnormal Emotional Experience In Schizophrenia, Dallas A. Callaway
Abnormal Emotional Experience In Schizophrenia, Dallas A. Callaway
LSU Master's Theses
Ambivalence is defined as the state of simultaneously experiencing antithetical emotions towards a single attitude object (Bleuler, 1911/1950). Recent studies have evidenced ambivalence as a prominent aspect of schizophrenia patients’ in-the-moment emotional experiences (Cohen & Minor, 2010; Trémeau et al., 2009). The present study extended this line of work through the use of an experimental mood-induction methodology to explore the amount, frequency, and average duration of univalent positive, negative, and ambivalent emotional episodes within individuals with schizophrenia and those without psychiatric disturbance. The results indicate that, when exposed to a film clip stimulus selected for its documented (Larsen & McGraw, …
Cognitive Performance As A Predictor Of Functional Capacity In Schizophrenia, Tracey Lauren Auster
Cognitive Performance As A Predictor Of Functional Capacity In Schizophrenia, Tracey Lauren Auster
LSU Master's Theses
Previous literature has demonstrated that persons with schizophrenia suffer from cognitive deficits and struggle with deficits in everyday living skills, two areas of functioning thatare related in some way. Nearly all cognitive domains are affected in schizophrenia, and most of them have been associated with poor functioning. Therefore, a possible link is the existence of an attentional bottleneck where the demands of attentional load and the lack of attentional resources to handle these demands, decreases capacity to carryout everyday living skills. Researchers have suggested the existence of a structural bottleneck that limits individuals’ ability in the use of cognitive resources. …
Social Connectedness Deficits In College Students With Schizotypy, Laura Brown
Social Connectedness Deficits In College Students With Schizotypy, Laura Brown
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
Schizophrenia is a devastating disorder characterized by a variety of bizarre behaviors as well as deficits in neurocognition, social cognition, and functioning. This study focuses on individuals with schizotypy—those with the purported genetic liability for schizophrenia that do not display the full disorder. Prior research has identified potential risk factors for schizophrenia by studying this population, including deficits in social cognition. Studies of social cognition in individuals with schizotypy, however, have yielded inconsistent findings that have failed to fully explain the range of functional deficits seen in these individuals. Social connectedness, in contrast, may be a more useful risk factor …
The Role Of Atypical Semantic Activation In Schizotypy: Implications For Odd Speech And Creativity, Kyle S. Minor
The Role Of Atypical Semantic Activation In Schizotypy: Implications For Odd Speech And Creativity, Kyle S. Minor
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
Individuals with schizophrenia tend to demonstrate patterns of atypical semantic activation, which are characterized by increased activation of weakly associated words within the semantic network. Although atypical semantic activation is associated with formal thought disorder, tangential speech, and poor long-term functioning in schizophrenia, very little is known about this variable in individuals with schizotypy, or the 10% of the population who demonstrate personality traits presumed to reflect genetic liability to schizophrenia. In this project, we employed highly sensitive laboratory procedures to test whether individuals with schizotypy (n = 45) display increased atypical semantic activation compared to a non-schizotypy group (n …
The Moderating Effects Of Perceived Intentionality: Exploring The Relationships Between Ideas Of Reference, Paranoia, And Social Anxiety In Schizotypy, Sean Cameron Morrison
The Moderating Effects Of Perceived Intentionality: Exploring The Relationships Between Ideas Of Reference, Paranoia, And Social Anxiety In Schizotypy, Sean Cameron Morrison
LSU Master's Theses
Ideas of reference (IOR), paranoia, and social anxiety are three common symptoms of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, which appear to be conceptually related. However, the precise nature of these relationships is unclear. A new measure that assesses perceived intentionality (PI), a social-cognitive bias for perceiving the actions of others during unpleasant social situations as being directed at oneself in an intentionally malicious manner, has provided preliminary evidence for a link between PI and paranoia. The primary aim of this study was to examine the moderating role of PI on the relationships between IOR and paranoia, and between IOR and social anxiety amongst …
Emotion Recognition In Schizotypy, Laura Brown
Emotion Recognition In Schizotypy, Laura Brown
LSU Master's Theses
Deficits in social cognition are repeatedly found in individuals with schizophrenia. Facial emotion recognition is a major aspect of social cognition in which individuals with schizophrenia show consistent deficits. However, many questions about these deficits remain unanswered including whether they occur in individuals with schizotypy—those at high risk for the disorder that do not manifest full pathology. Examining emotion recognition in schizotypy eliminates many of the confounds associated with schizophrenia research such as medication effects, chronic institutionalization, and generalized cognitive deficits, and allows for the examination of whether emotion recognition deficits reflect vulnerability to schizophrenia. Prior research in this population …
Affective Reactivity Of Speech Disturbances In Schizotypy, Kyle Stuart Minor
Affective Reactivity Of Speech Disturbances In Schizotypy, Kyle Stuart Minor
LSU Master's Theses
Speech disturbances (SD) are a stable, pernicious symptom of schizophrenia that increase when negative emotion and/or arousal are elicited. While considerable research has examined SD in patients with schizophrenia, much less is known about individuals at risk for the disorder, who demonstrate schizophrenia-like, or schizotypic, traits. The present study examined SD and speech reactivity to stress, termed affective reactivity (AR), produced during a laboratory procedure in separate groups of controls and individuals with psychometrically identified schizotypy. This project had two primary aims: 1) to examine SD severity across schizotypy symptoms and 2) to examine how SD varies as a function …
Behavior Problems Exhibited In Institutionalized Persons With Intellectual Disabilities And Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders, Ryan Thorson
Behavior Problems Exhibited In Institutionalized Persons With Intellectual Disabilities And Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders, Ryan Thorson
LSU Master's Theses
Although our understanding of dual diagnosis has improved in recent years, a deficit exists in our knowledge of how schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) manifest themselves in individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID). We also know very little about the behavioral problems present with the ID population based on the existence of psychopathology. The present research attempted to extend the literature by comparing behavior problems of individuals with intellectual disability with SSD, any form of psychopathology, and no psychopathology. Utilizing the Behavior Problems Inventory (BPI), three areas of problem behaviors were examined (self-injurious behavior, stereotypic behavior, and aggressive/destructive behavior) and a total …
Qualitative Scoring Of The Rey 15-Item Memory Test In A Forensic Population, James A. Martin
Qualitative Scoring Of The Rey 15-Item Memory Test In A Forensic Population, James A. Martin
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
Several studies have examined the ability of the Rey 15-Item Memory Test (MFIT) to identify malingering of memory problems among a variety of psychiatric and neurologically impaired populations. The consensus has been that the quantitative scoring method is overly sensitive to genuine memory impairment and lacks sensitivity to simulated amnesia. However, a reexamination of these studies and available data indicates the MFIT is both valid and effective at identifying actual malingerers among civil litigants, and a number of these studies were limited through inappropriate inclusion of severely impaired patients and research designs of questionable validity. Also, the performance of a …
The Role Of Attention In Affect Perception: An Examination Of Mirsky's Four Factor Model Of Attention In Chronic Schizophrenia, Dennis R. Combs
The Role Of Attention In Affect Perception: An Examination Of Mirsky's Four Factor Model Of Attention In Chronic Schizophrenia, Dennis R. Combs
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
Attention and affect perception was examined in a sample of sixty-five persons with chronic schizophrenia. Attentional skills may be related to deficits in affect perception due to a lack of attention to important information contained in the face. Deficits of this sort can dramatically inhibit appropriate social functioning. However, there is a lack of empirical research on this topic. Mirsky's four factor model of attention was used as a broad-based assessment of attentional functioning. The four factors of attention were: 1) Focus-Execute, 2) Encode, 3) Sustain, and 4) Shift. Neuropsychological measures reflective of attentional factor were administered. In this study, …