Lenzenweger M F, Korfine L
Dept. of Human Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-4401.
Schizophr Bull. 1994;20(2):345-57. doi: 10.1093/schbul/20.2.345.
This study examined performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) by 23 schizotypic subjects and 28 normal control subjects. Schizotypy was measured on the Perceptual Aberration Scale (PAS). Overall, schizotypic (high PAS) subjects performed more poorly than control (low PAS) subjects on the WCST; specifically, schizotypic subjects showed deficits on the failure-to-maintain-set and number-of-categories indexes. Consistent with expectations based on research with high-risk subjects, schizotypic subjects were nearly 10 times more likely than controls to be included in a subgroup of deviant WCST performers identified by a composite performance index. WCST performance was not associated with current levels of anxiety or depression. Our results provide evidence for subtle WCST performance deficits in subjects hypothesized to be at risk for psychosis--perhaps schizophrenia--and are broadly consistent with current speculation about dorsolateral prefrontal cortex functioning in schizophrenia as well as recent speculation concerning spatial working memory and schizophrenia. The heuristic potential of our results is discussed and we encourage replication of the present study. Viewed in this context, our results are hypothesis-generating and do not provide definitive confirmation of specific hypotheses.
本研究考察了23名分裂型人格受试者和28名正常对照受试者在威斯康星卡片分类测验（WCST）中的表现。分裂型人格通过感知偏差量表（PAS）进行测量。总体而言，分裂型人格（高PAS）受试者在WCST上的表现比对照组（低PAS）受试者更差；具体来说，分裂型人格受试者在维持定势失败和分类数指标上表现出缺陷。与基于对高危受试者的研究预期一致，通过综合表现指数确定的WCST异常表现亚组中，分裂型人格受试者被纳入的可能性几乎是对照组的10倍。WCST表现与当前的焦虑或抑郁水平无关。我们的研究结果为假设存在精神病——可能是精神分裂症——风险的受试者存在细微的WCST表现缺陷提供了证据，并且与当前关于精神分裂症中背外侧前额叶皮层功能的推测以及近期关于空间工作记忆和精神分裂症的推测大致一致。我们讨论了研究结果的启发潜力，并鼓励重复本研究。在此背景下，我们的研究结果只是提出假设，并未对特定假设提供确切证实。
