Verbal fluency in schizophrenia: reduction in semantic store

Objective: This is a study of the word production of patients with schizoph renia using a semantic verbal fluency task to address the unresolved issue of retrieval or storage impairment. Method: Twenty-one patients with schizophrenia and 11 matched healthy subje cts performed a semantic verbal fluency task on 'food','animal' and 'transp ort' categories in Cantonese for 3 minutes each on five separate trials. Results: Patients generated significantly fewer numbers of words compared w ith control on each trial. The estimated lexicon size of the patients was s ignificantly smaller than that of the equivalent group. The amount of share d words and variable words generated in all five trials were reduced in the patient group. Conclusions: Our results suggest that poor verbal fluency in patients with schizophrenia may partly be attributable to reduction in semantic store. Th e importance of temporal robe involvement on verbal fluency deficits needs to be emphasised as an integral part of the neurobiological basis of schizo phrenia research.