Unique signatures in verbal fluency task performance in schizophrenia and depression.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Verbal fluency tasks reveal consistent impairments among individuals with schizophrenia (SSD) and shed valuable insight on semantic and cognitive processing. However, comparisons with other psychiatric groups remain limited. Doing so may help clarify whether characteristics are unique to SSD versus shared across diagnoses. This study compared verbal fluency responses among participants with SSD, unipolar depression, and healthy volunteers (HV).

Methods

Participants with SSD (n = 64), unipolar depression (n = 70), and HVs (n = 37) completed letter- and category-guided verbal fluency tasks. Using automated pipelines, we extracted total correct responses, pause durations, first response latency, semantic and phonemic distances, and the number and

SUBMITTER: Cho S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12689178 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature