| The central theme of my dissertation has been an examination of somatosensation (the processing of touch, pain, temperature, vibration and proprioception) in individuals at a heightened risk for carrying the schizophrenia liability (i.e., familial schizotypes). In study 1, I found that familial schizotypes performed significantly worse on a touch processing task (i.e., two-point discrimination) compared to healthy controls. In study 2, I found that familial schizotypes performed significantly worse on a complex somatosensory processing task (i.e., graphesthesia) compared to controls. In study 3, I examined weight processing, two-point discrimination, and graphesthesia performance in familial schizotypes, comparing their performance to biological relatives of persons with bipolar affective disorder (psychiatric family controls) and healthy controls. Familial schizotypes performed significantly worse on all three somatosensory tasks compared to both control groups. I found no significant differences between the two control groups on any of the somatosensory tasks. Two-point discrimination task performance was significantly associated with weight discrimination task performance. Graphesthesia task performance was not associated with any of the other somatosensory tasks. Using the data from these studies, I discuss implications for the relation between somatosensory task performance and schizophrenia. |
