Mismatch and lexical retrieval gestures are associated with visual information processing, verbal production, and symptomatology in youth at high risk for psychosis

Abstract

Introduction Gesture is integrally linked with language and cognitive systems, and recent years have seen a growing attention to these movements in patients with schizophrenia. To date, however, there have been no investigations of gesture in youth at ultra high risk (UHR) for psychosis. Examining gesture in UHR individuals may help to elucidate other widely recognized communicative and cognitive deficits in this population and yield new clues for treatment development. Method In this study, mismatch (indicating semantic incongruency between the content of speech and a given gesture) and retrieval (used during pauses in speech while a person appears to be searching for a word or idea) gestures were evaluated in 42 UHR individuals and 36 matched healthy controls. Cognitive functions relevant to gesture production (i.e., speed of visual information processing and verbal production) as well as positive and negative symptomatology were assessed. Results Although the overall frequency of cases exhibiting these behaviors was low, UHR individuals produced substantially more mismatch and retrieval gestures than controls. The UHR group also exhibited significantly poorer verbal production performance when compared with controls. In the patient group, mismatch gestures were associated with poorer visual processing speed and elevated negative symptoms, while retrieval gestures were associated with higher speed of visual information-processing and verbal production, but not symptoms. Conclusions Taken together these findings indicate that gesture abnormalities are present in individuals at high risk for psychosis. While mismatch gestures may be closely related to disease processes, retrieval gestures may be employed as a compensatory mechanism.

Beat and metaphoric gestures are differentially associated with regional cerebellar and cortical volumes

“…Finally, our analyses were restricted to gray matter volume in healthy individuals, and were limited to only gesture production. However, both we and others have recently demonstrated that gestures differ in important clinical populations (e.g., psychosis and psychosis risk) [Millman et al, 2014;Straube et al, 2013Straube et al, , 2014 although this work has not included beat gestures. Investigating beat gestures in patient populations with respect to brain volumes in the future may be informative for our understanding of both the disease processes and co-speech gestures, particularly in psychosis populations given their known cerebellar motor deficits Mittal, 2014, 2015;Dean et al, 2013].…”

“…Of note, volumetric investigations of the cerebellum in a subset of these participants were undertaken as part of a control group in a clinical investigation with respect to motor learning [Dean et al, ], and a lifespan developmental investigation focusing on cognition [Bernard et al, ]. These participants also served as controls in a comparison of gesture‐language mismatch between healthy individuals and a clinical group [Millman et al, ].…”

Gesture Performance in First- and Multiple-Episode Patients with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders

“…In contrast, two reports of spontaneous gesture use suggest alterations in gesture use in unmedicated schizotypal adolescents and youth at ultrahigh risk for psychosis [28,29]. The authors investigated the spontaneous frequency of well-defined gesture categories, such as iconic, metaphoric, beat and deictic (pointing) gestures, during a natural interview situation.…”

“…The authors investigated the spontaneous frequency of well-defined gesture categories, such as iconic, metaphoric, beat and deictic (pointing) gestures, during a natural interview situation. Besides the quantitative reduction in spontaneous gesture use [29], subjects at risk also demonstrated qualitative alterations in gesture content [28]. In fact, increased mismatch errors (incongruence between content of speech and gesture) and more retrieval gestures (gestures during speech pause while the participant is searching an expression) were reported in subjects at risk.…”

“…over the first few months) and then gradually returned to baseline levels with continued treatment [26,27]. Furthermore, subjects at risk for psychosis demonstrate reduced and faulty gesturing [28,29]. …”