13.1958, Diss: Neuroling: Buoiano "Language Impairments..."

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List:  Vol-13-1958. Mon Jul 22 2002. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 13.1958, Diss: Neuroling: Buoiano "Language Impairments..."

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Wayne State U.<aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Dry, Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at linguistlist.org>

Reviews (reviews at linguistlist.org):
	Simin Karimi, U. of Arizona
	Terence Langendoen, U. of Arizona

Consulting Editor:
        Andrew Carnie, U. of Arizona <carnie at linguistlist.org>

Editors (linguist at linguistlist.org):
	Karen Milligan, WSU 		Naomi Ogasawara, EMU
	James Yuells, EMU		Marie Klopfenstein, WSU
	Michael Appleby, EMU		Heather Taylor, EMU
	Ljuba Veselinova, Stockholm U.	Richard John Harvey, EMU
	Dina Kapetangianni, EMU		Renee Galvis, WSU
	Karolina Owczarzak, EMU		Anita Wang, EMU

Software: John Remmers, E. Michigan U. <remmers at emunix.emich.edu>
          Gayathri Sriram, E. Michigan U. <gayatri at linguistlist.org>
          Zhenwei Chen, E. Michigan U. <zhenwei at linguistlist.org>

Home Page:  http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, Wayne
State University, and donations from subscribers and publishers.



Editor for this issue: Karolina Owczarzak <karolina at linguistlist.org>

=================================Directory=================================

1)
Date:  Sun, 21 Jul 2002 14:39:38 +0000
From:  g.buoiano at ling.unipi.it
Subject:  Neuroling: Buoiano "Language Impairments in Schizophrenia..."

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Sun, 21 Jul 2002 14:39:38 +0000
From:  g.buoiano at ling.unipi.it
Subject:  Neuroling: Buoiano "Language Impairments in Schizophrenia..."


New Dissertation Abstract

Institution: University of Pisa
Program: Ph.D in Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2002

Author: Giancarlo Buoiano

Dissertation Title:
Language Impairments in Schizophrenia: a Neurolinguistic Approach

Linguistic Field: Neurolinguistics

Dissertation Director 1: Roberto Ajello
Dissertation Director 2: Giovanna Marotta


Dissertation Abstract:

So far studies on schizophrenic language have been rather vague and
focalized mainly on factors of frequency and context processing,
except for some remarkable papers by E. Chaika in the
80's. Furthermore, schizophrenic language is not generally considered
at the light of specific brain lesions already examined in
aphasiology, and researchers in this specific area do not take into
account how the parsing system works in normal language use.

We have meant to fill this gap by analyzing language impairments in
schizophrenia from a neurolinguistic point of view, by developing a
Neurolinguistic Modular Theory partly based on previous studies and
partly innovative. There is general agreement about the report that
schizophrenics show cognitive impairments typical of frontal,
fronto-striatal and frontotemporal syndromes. Nevertheless an accurate
neurolinguistic assessment "as far as we know" had never been utilized
in schizophrenia. With data from aphasiology, we expected that severe
linguistic damages could be observed in schizophrenia given the
neuropathological alterations reported.

We have implemented and used a battery of tests specifically aimed to
assess which kind of language impairments are detectable in
schizophrenia: we have been able to evaluate enough accurately the
degree of syntactic, semantic and linguistic-perceptional impairment
in schizophrenia. Eight (6 paranoid and 2 disorganized) schizophrenics
and 2 patients with schizotypic personality disorder have been
tested. As age- and sex-matched control group, we studied 10
physically and psychically healthy subjects with no personal or
familiar history of neuropsychiatric disorders.

The schizophrenic patients performed significantly worse than the
controls in all the tests. Verbs, syntax and semantic-syntactic
coindexation were highly impaired. We explain such findings in terms
of the reported fronto-striatal and frontal derangements in
schizophrenics. Furthermore, since the patients performing worse were
the most thought-disordered, a link between specific language brain
areas and some schizophrenic symptoms can be likely.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-13-1958