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Relationship Between Grammar and Schizophrenia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Poster Session D, Saturday, September 13, 5:00 - 6:30 pm, Field House
This poster is part of the Sandbox Series.
Dalia Elleuch1, Yinhan Chen2, Qiang Luo2,3, Lena Palaniyappan4,5,6; 1Higher School of Health Sciences and Techniques of Sfax, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia, 2Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Research Institute of Intelligent Complex Systems, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China;, 3State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China, 4Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Quebec, Canada., 5Robarts Research Institute & Lawson Health Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada., 6Department of Medical Biophysics, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
Background: Schizophrenia significantly impairs everyday communication, affecting education and employment. Such communication difficulties may arise from deficits in syntax—understanding, and generating grammatical structures. Research on syntactic impairments in schizophrenia is underpowered, with inconsistent findings, and it is unclear if deficits are specific to certain patient subgroups, regardless of symptom profiles, age, sex, or illness severity. Methods: A pre-registered search using PubMed, Scopus, PsycInfo, and Web of Science databases up to May 1, 2024, for all studies investigating syntax comprehension and production in schizophrenia vs. healthy controls. Excluding studies on those <18 years of age and qualitative research, we extracted Cohen’s d and log coefficient of variation ratio and used Bayesian meta-analysis across 6 domains: 2 in comprehension and 4 in production in patient-control comparisons. Study quality was evaluated with a modified Newcastle–Ottawa Scale, with moderators (age, sex, study quality, language) tested via meta-regression. Results: From 45 studies (n=2,960 participants, 64.4% English, weighted mean age(sd)=32.3(5.6)), Bayesian meta-analysis show strong evidence of syntactic deficits in schizophrenia across all domains (d=0.65–1.01, overall random-effects d=0.86, 95% CrI [0.67–1.03]), with syntax comprehension being most affected, with weak publication bias. Patients show increased variability in comprehension and production of long and complex utterances (lnCVR=0.21, 95% CrI [0.07–0.36]), hinting at subgroups with differing performance. Conclusions: Robust impairments in grammatical comprehension and production in schizophrenia suggest opportunities for targeted interventions focusing on syntax, a rule-based feature amenable to cognitive, educational, and linguistic interventions.
Topic Areas: Syntax and Combinatorial Semantics, Language Production