Stirling John, Hellewell Jonathan, Blakey Andrew, Deakin William
Department of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK.
Psychol Med. 2006 Apr;36(4):475-84. doi: 10.1017/S0033291705006884. Epub 2006 Jan 10.
Formal thought disorder (FTD) has long been regarded as a key sign of schizophrenia but little is known about its origins or aetiology. One suggestion is that it is directly related to disordered language functioning; a second is that it is a reflection of poor neurocognitive functioning. A current model posits that it is related to a combination of executive dysfunction and impaired semantic processing.
To examine these alternative ideas, a heterogeneous group of 30 patients, all carrying a diagnosis of schizophrenia, and 18 non-patient controls completed a series of neurocognitive and psycholinguistic tests, and a clinical review that, inter alia, permitted assessment of thought disorder (TD) using the Thought, Language and Communication Scale (TLC).
Patients generally performed at a lower level on most components of the test battery, but there was little evidence of a relationship between TD and syntactic psycholinguistic function. However, schizophrenic patients manifesting higher levels of TD performed at a lower level on tests sensitive to executive dysfunction and semantic impairments.
The origins of TD seem more closely linked to deficits in executive functioning and semantic processing than to impairments in other language functions or general cognition.
形式思维障碍（FTD）长期以来一直被视为精神分裂症的关键标志，但对其起源或病因知之甚少。一种观点认为它与语言功能紊乱直接相关；另一种观点认为它是神经认知功能不佳的反映。当前的一种模型假定它与执行功能障碍和语义加工受损的综合情况有关。
为检验这些不同观点，一组由30名均被诊断为精神分裂症的患者和18名非患者对照组成的异质性群体完成了一系列神经认知和心理语言学测试，以及一项临床评估，该评估尤其允许使用思维、语言和交流量表（TLC）对思维障碍（TD）进行评估。
患者在测试组的大多数项目上总体表现较差，但几乎没有证据表明TD与句法心理语言学功能之间存在关联。然而，表现出较高水平TD的精神分裂症患者在对执行功能障碍和语义损伤敏感的测试中表现较差。
TD的起源似乎与执行功能和语义加工方面的缺陷联系更为紧密，而非与其他语言功能或一般认知方面的损伤有关。
