NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL CORRELATES OF ALOGIA AND AFFECTIVE FLATTENING IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

We examined whether two negative symptoms, alogia and affective flatte ning, were more strongly associated with dysfunction of certain brain regions than with others in a sample of 27 schizophrenic subjects. Neu ropsychological tests were used to measure the integrity of functionin g of different brain regions. Functioning of left and right frontal re gions was assessed by word fluency and design fluency, respectively, a nd functioning of the left temporohippocampal region was assessed by H ebb's digit-sequences recall rest. Measures of alogia and affective fl attening were obtained using the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms. The results indicated that more severe levels of these negat ive symptoms were associated with poorer performance on the fluency te sts. These relationships were fairly specific as indicated in two ways : (I) only certain neuropsychological measures were associated with ne gative symptoms; and (2) poor performance on fluency rests was not ass ociated with all psychiatric symptoms. In addition, affective flatteni ng, but not alogia, appeared to be associated with lateralized dysfunc tion.