Luo Alice, Luo Jintian, Murphy Michael
McLean Hospital , Belmont, MA, 02478, US.
Indiana University , Bloomington, IN, 47405, US.
Sci Rep. 2025 Aug 6;15(1):28819. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-14681-x.
Thought disorder, characterized by disruptions in syntactic and semantic elements in language, is a core symptom of psychotic disorders. Understanding this language impairment is key to uncovering the underlying neuropathology and predicting treatment outcomes for individuals with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. Binomial ordering preferences (e.g. "salt and pepper" instead of "pepper and salt"), may be a quantifiable correlate of thought disorder and underlying linguistic impairments. We tested whether atypical binomial ordering can serve as a linguistic marker for psychosis symptoms. Participants with early-stage psychotic disorders and controls were recruited, and video-recorded interviews were transcribed for analysis. Identified binomial pairs were assessed using both the Google N-gram database and a logistic regression model to determine ordering preferences. Results showed that while both psychotic participants and controls preferred conventional binomial orderings, participants with psychotic disorders exhibited a higher rate of atypical binomial orderings. The use of atypical orderings was correlated with thought disorder, but not with other psychiatric symptoms or medications. Tracking binomial ordering can be a valuable marker of thought disorder but future studies are needed to determine whether this link remains stable or if it changes with disease progression.
思维紊乱以语言的句法和语义元素中断为特征，是精神障碍的核心症状。理解这种语言障碍是揭示潜在神经病理学以及预测精神分裂症和其他精神障碍患者治疗结果的关键。二项式排序偏好（例如“盐和胡椒”而非“胡椒和盐”）可能是思维紊乱及潜在语言障碍的一种可量化关联指标。我们测试了非典型二项式排序是否可作为精神病症状的语言标志物。招募了患有早期精神障碍的参与者和对照组，对视频记录的访谈进行转录以进行分析。使用谷歌N-gram数据库和逻辑回归模型对识别出的二项式对进行评估，以确定排序偏好。结果显示，虽然患有精神病的参与者和对照组都更喜欢传统的二项式排序，但患有精神障碍的参与者表现出更高比例的非典型二项式排序。非典型排序的使用与思维紊乱相关，但与其他精神症状或药物无关。追踪二项式排序可能是思维紊乱的一个有价值的标志物，但未来还需要研究来确定这种关联是否保持稳定，或者它是否会随疾病进展而变化。
