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Schizophrenia pp 77–96Cite as

Similarities Between Information-Processing Abnormalities of Actively Symptomatic Schizophrenic Patients and High-Risk Children

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Abstract

Research aimed at identifying abnormalities in the processing of information by schizophrenic patients has been an important direction in the search for the mechanisms that may underlie schizophrenic symptomatology. The early systematic descriptions of schizophrenia by Eugen Bleuler gave prominence to the hypothesis that most schizophrenic symptomatology could be traced to a “disconnecting of associative threads” that form the relationships between ideas (Bleuler, 1911/1950, p. 21). Recent investigators have refined the proposition that primary malfunctions in elementary cognitive processes contribute substantially to formal thought disorder (e.g., Maher, 1972, 1983). Hemsley (1977) and Frith (1979), among others, have also suggested ties between a primary cognitive deficit and the secondary formation of delusions and hallucinations, symptoms which are central for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd edition (DSM-III; 1980) and its revised edition (DSM-III-R; 1987) diagnoses of schizophrenic disorder.

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Authors
  1. K. H. Nuechterlein
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  2. K. M. Zaucha
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, University of Tübingen, Osianderstraße 22, D-7400, Tübingen, Federal Republic of Germany

    Eckart R. Straube

  2. Department of Psychology, Technical University of Braunschweig, Spielmannstraße 12A, D-3300, Braunschweig, Federal Republic of Germany

    Kurt Hahlweg

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Nuechterlein, K.H., Zaucha, K.M. (1990). Similarities Between Information-Processing Abnormalities of Actively Symptomatic Schizophrenic Patients and High-Risk Children. In: Straube, E.R., Hahlweg, K. (eds) Schizophrenia. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74308-5_5

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