Semantic associations, lateralized frontal function, and context maintenance in schizotypy

Symptom heterogeneity within conventional diagnostic groups is fostering a growing focus on narrower symptom profiles to identify psychological and biological mechanisms in psychopathology. Positive symptoms of schizophrenia are associated with context maintenance deficits, which in turn have been linked to frontal-lobe function. Frontal- and temporal-lobe brain dysfunction is also well documented in schizophrenia. The present study (N = 36) examined how context and memory deficits are associated with subclinical symptoms in schizotypy by investigating the relationship between symptom reports, neuropsychological performance, and several facets of recognition memory. Context maintenance was probed via lures suggested by presented verbal material. Frontal brain function and positive symptom schizotypy predicted accuracy for lures, whereas posterior brain function and low positive affect predicted accuracy for distracters. This pattern of findings establishes continuity in disruption of context maintenance in clinical and subclinical populations.