Using Language Processing and Speech Analysis for the Identification of Psychosis and Other Disorders

Corcoran, Cheryl; Cecchi, Guillermo A.

doi:10.1016/j.bpsc.2020.06.004

Cited by 67 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…A comprehensive understanding of “schizophrenic language”—a term coined by Chaika 4 as a special case of linguistic disruption—requires the study of clinical deviance 5 , 6 as well as variations in normal speech. 7 Linguistic approaches offer specific conceptual and procedural frameworks through Natural Language Processing analytics 8 to investigate the differential mechanisms 9 underlying a wide-ranging set of communication-discourse disturbances. 10 In this work, we focus on the relationship between these disruptions in transcribed speech samples and the clinical impression of formal thought disorder (FTD) in schizophrenia (SZ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small Words That Matter: Linguistic Style and Conceptual Disorganization in Untreated First-Episode Schizophrenia

Silva

Limongi

Mackinley

et al. 2021

Schizophrenia Bulletin Open

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This study aimed to shed light on the linguistic style affecting the communication-discourse in First Episode Schizophrenia (FES) by investigating the analytic thinking index in relation to clinical scores of conceptual and thought disorganisation (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, PANSS-P2 and Thought and Language Index, TLI). Using robust Bayesian modeling, we report three major findings: (1) FES subjects showed reduced analytic thinking, exhibiting a less categorical linguistic style than healthy control (HC) subjects (Bayes factor, BF10 > 1000), despite using the same proportion of function and content words as HCs; (2) the lower the analytic thinking score, the higher the symptoms scores of conceptual disorganisation (PANSS-P2, BF = 22.66) and global disorganisation of thinking (TLI, BF10 = 112.73); (3) The linguistic style is a better predictor of conceptual disorganisation than the cognitive measure of processing speed in schizophrenia. These findings provide an objectively detectable linguistic style with a focus on Natural Language Processing Analytics of transcribed speech samples of patients with schizophrenia that requires no clinical judgment. These findings also offer a crucial insight into the primacy of linguistic structural disruption in clinically ascertained disorganized thinking in schizophrenia. Our work contributes to an emerging body of literature on the psychopathology of schizophrenia using a first-order lexeme-level analysis and a hypothesis-driven approach. At a utilitarian level, this has implications for improving educational and social outcomes in patients with schizophrenia.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small Words That Matter: Linguistic Style and Conceptual Disorganization in Untreated First-Episode Schizophrenia

Silva

Limongi

Mackinley

et al. 2021

Schizophrenia Bulletin Open

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“…In recent times, a surge of methodological advances in sampling human discourse has brought the spotlight back on the phenomenon variously known as 'formal thought disorder' (FTD), 'speech disorder' or 'communication disturbances' in schizophrenia [2][3][4][5] . The emphasis on objective measurement of speech in real-world settings using automated assessment is not new 6 .…”

Section: Computational Linguistics In Psychosismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…But the improved access to normative corpora for analysis, the corpus-independent graph metrics and the emergence of ambulatory approaches for speech capture that aid Artificial Intelligence based learning systems have improved scalability, and provided the much needed momentum to this field of inquiry. Several predictive as well as mechanistic studies have been published in npj Schizophrenia [7][8][9][10][11] in recent times, with excellent state-of-art appraisals of computational linguistics found elsewhere 2,4,5,12 . The assessment of thought disorder has extended from being a qualitative assessment using FTD scales to a more quantitative determination based on automated measures.…”

Section: Computational Linguistics In Psychosismentioning

confidence: 99%

More than a biomarker: could language be a biosocial marker of psychosis?

Palaniyappan

2021

npj Schizophr

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Automated extraction of quantitative linguistic features has the potential to predict objectively the onset and progression of psychosis. These linguistic variables are often considered to be biomarkers, with a large emphasis placed on the pathological aberrations in the biological processes that underwrite the faculty of language in psychosis. This perspective offers a reminder that human language is primarily a social device that is biologically implemented. As such, linguistic aberrations in patients with psychosis reflect both social and biological processes affecting an individual. Failure to consider the sociolinguistic aspects of NLP measures will limit their usefulness as digital tools in clinical settings. In the context of psychosis, considering language as a biosocial marker could lead to less biased and more accessible tools for patient-specific predictions in the clinic.

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“…Speech contains relevant information about human thought, including semantic and emotional content, semantic coherence, and syntactic structure and complexity [49]. It is expected that speech features, such as prosodic voice parameters, semantic and emotional content and coherence, sentence length, number of words or syllables, and number and duration of pauses, are involved and will change with time [50].…”

Section: Data Integration and Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Technologies for Innovative Mental Health Rehabilitation

et al. 2021

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Schizophrenia is a chronic mental illness, characterized by the loss of the notion of reality, failing to distinguish it from the imaginary. It affects the patient in life’s major areas, such as work, interpersonal relationships, or self-care, and the usual treatment is performed with the help of anti-psychotic medication, which targets primarily the hallucinations, delirium, etc. Other symptoms, such as the decreased emotional expression or avolition, require a multidisciplinary approach, including psychopharmacology, cognitive training, and many forms of therapy. In this context, this paper addresses the use of digital technologies to design and develop innovative rehabilitation techniques, particularly focusing on mental health rehabilitation, and contributing for the promotion of well-being and health from a holistic perspective. In this context, serious games and virtual reality allows for creation of immersive environments that contribute to a more effective and lasting recovery, with improvements in terms of quality of life. The use of machine learning techniques will allow the real-time analysis of the data collected during the execution of the rehabilitation procedures, as well as enable their dynamic and automatic adaptation according to the profile and performance of the patients, by increasing or reducing the exercises’ difficulty. It relies on the acquisition of biometric and physiological signals, such as voice, heart rate, and game performance, to estimate the stress level, thus adapting the difficulty of the experience to the skills of the patient. The system described in this paper is currently in development, in collaboration with a health unit, and is an engineering effort that combines hardware and software to develop a rehabilitation tool for schizophrenic patients. A clinical trial is also planned for assessing the effectiveness of the system among negative symptoms in schizophrenia patients.

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Using Language Processing and Speech Analysis for the Identification of Psychosis and Other Disorders

Cited by 67 publications

References 66 publications

Small Words That Matter: Linguistic Style and Conceptual Disorganization in Untreated First-Episode Schizophrenia

Small Words That Matter: Linguistic Style and Conceptual Disorganization in Untreated First-Episode Schizophrenia

More than a biomarker: could language be a biosocial marker of psychosis?

Digital Technologies for Innovative Mental Health Rehabilitation

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