Executive dysfunction in schizophrenia and its association with mentalizing abilities

Theory of Mind and Selective Attention, Response Inhibition, Cognitive Flexibility in Patients with Schizophrenia

“…In our study, it was determined that Eyes test score had a significant negative relationship with WCST perseverative error score, a significantly positive correlation with WCST categories achieved score and that cognitive flexibility level predicted better performance at the Eyes test in patients with schizophrenia. Since studies demonstrating that ToM and executive functions are impaired independent of each other (34), it is also indicated that impairment of ToM abilities cannot be explained just by lower intelligence levels and may be related with impairment of cognitive functions (14,15,35). In some of the studies that report impairment in ToM functions independent of cognitive functions in patients with schizophrenia, it is put forward that ToM functions are executed by special modules specific to this function (14,15).…”

Relationships between cognitive performance, clinical insight and regional brain volumes in schizophrenia

“…Also, cognitive performance and brain volumes in SZH were contrasted against an age- and gender-matched control group to contextualise the findings: as expected, SZH had poorer cognitive performance across all domains and lower grey matter volume within most of the ROIs. Impaired neurocognitive performance 2 – 10 and reduced grey matter volume in fronto-temporal regions 46 – 50 are reliably reported in the literature.…”

“…Persistent impairments in cognitive performance are detectable in most patients with schizophrenia (SZH) and have important consequences for functional capacity 1 . Cognitive deficits span most neurocognitive domains, including attention 2 , 3 , working memory 4 , 5 , episodic memory 6 , 7 and executive function 8 – 10 . Cognitive deficits have also been observed in first-episode patients, suggesting they are not due to drug treatment 11 , 12 ; indeed, cognitive impairments are largely unimproved by pharmacological therapy 13 .…”

Normative data for tests of attention and executive functions in a sample of European Portuguese adult population

“…Executive and attentional dysfunction are common in a wide variety of conditions including acquired brain injury (e.g., TBI: Caeyenberghs et al, 2014;Cicerone & Giacino, 1992;McDonald, Flashman, & Saykin, 2002;Shah et al, 2017;Tramontana, Cowan, Zald, Prokop, & Guillamondegui, 2014), stroke (Olgiati, Russell, Soto, & Malhotra, 2016;Pohjasvaara et al, 2002;Vataja et al, 2003), neuropsychiatric (e.g., bipolar depression: Caixeta et al, 2017;and schizophrenia: Carter et al, 2010;Dirnberger, Fuller, Frith, & Jahanshahi, 2014;Gavilán & García-Albea, 2015), neurodegenerative (e.g., Alzheimer's disease: Amiéva et al, 2004;Binetti et al, 1996;Firbank et al, 2016;Moreira, Lima, Vicente, 2014;Moreira, Costa, Machado, Castro, Lima, & Vicente, 2019;Swanberg, Tractenberg, Mohs, Thal, & Cummings, 2004; the behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia, bvFTD: Fiorentino et al, 2013;Slachevsky et al, 2004;and Parkinson's: Dirnberger & Jahanshahi, 2013;Lima, Meireles, Fonseca, Castro, & Garret, 2008;Papagno & Trojano, 2018;Zgaljardic et al, 2006), and neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., ADHD: Kingdon, Cardoso, & McGrath, 2016;Margari et al, 2016;Veloso, Vicente, & Filipe, 2020;and autism: Filipe, Frota, & Vicente, 2019;Miller & Hinshaw, 2015), among many others conditions.…”