Cued fluency protocol reveals dynamic symptomatic-dependent processes of goal-directed behaviours in schizophrenia

Introduction. Differential impairments of willed actions and routine behaviours are the subject of many studies into schizophrenia. These impairments in generating and controlling goal-directed behaviours are reported in studies showing the effect of cueing in cognitive or motor tasks in people with schizophrenia. The aim of this study was to assess the performance of people with schizophrenia in a cued fluency protocol reworked to fit the concept of goal-directed behaviour. The extent to which results could be better explained by goal-directed generation issues, according to a symptomatic framework, than by semantic retrieval or semantic processing impairments, was also investigated.

Methods. We compared the performance of 43 individuals with schizophrenia to a control group of 26 participants. Participants were assessed with neuropsychological tests. The dominance of positive and negative symptoms, and apathetic profile, were also evaluated. All participants completed a cued fluency protocol.

Results. Despite a significant improvement, not all people with schizophrenia exhibited equal cueing benefits. The participants with negative symptom dominance appeared to benefit more from cueing, even though their baseline performance was lower.

Conclusions. These results suggest that, in addition to semantic memory impairments, some cognitive tasks may be more broadly influenced by difficulties in generating goal-directed behaviours.