Understanding the executive functioning heterogeneity in schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is characterized by heterogeneous brain abnormalities involving cerebral regions implied in the executive functioning. The dysexecutive syndrome is one of the most prominent and functionally cognitive features of schizophrenia. Nevertheless, it is not clear to what extend executive deficits are heterogeneous in schizophrenia patients. Furthermore, it is still unknown if the executive impairments observed in schizophrenia are better characterized as specific or as reflecting generalized cognitive factors. The four executive processes (i.e. updating, inhibition, shifting and divided attention) described in Miyake et al.’s (2000) theoretical model were examined in 62 individuals with schizophrenia and 49 healthy controls. At group level, impairments in all four executive processes confirmed the marked impairment in executive functioning in patients with schizophrenia. Statistical analysis indicated that executive performances in schizophrenia patients were more heterogeneous than in healthy controls. Compared with standardized norms, 94% of patients exhibited impairment in at least one of the executive tasks. Twenty-one percent of patients exhibited impairment in one executive task, 27% in two tasks, 23% in three executive tasks and 23% exhibited impairments in the four executive tasks. Six percent of patients had normal executive profile. Regression analysis indicated that only premorbid intellectual quotient and a general slowing in processing speed predicted the executive dysfunction severity. Executive functioning was not affected by age, duration of illness, psychotic status, or by antipsychotic dosage. Our results emphasize the heterogeneity of the dysexecutive syndrome in schizophrenia when individual profile analysis is considered, and extend the view that individual cognitive differences in schizophrenia are largely underlined by general cognitive factors such as intellectual level and general processing speed.