Study of neurocognitive correlates of schizotypy personality clusters in healthy individuals

Background and Objectives: Inconsistencies in the relationship between schizotypy dimensions and neurocognitive functions found in correlational studies may be clarified with the use of alternative methodological approaches. The aim of this study was to examine the existence of different profiles of schizotypal traits and their neurocognitIve correlates in non-clinical subjects by means of cluster analysis. Methods: We examined seventy six healthy adults from the general population with a comprehensive neurocognitive battery and a schizotypal personality self-report. Results: Four neurocognitive factors were extracted: visuospatial, semantic evocation, verbal memory, and set-shifting. A three cluster model yielded the following clusters: "lowschizotypy", "positive schizotypy", and "negative/disorganized schizotypy". The positive and negative/disorganized schizotypy clusters showed poorer performance on semantic evocation compared with the low schizotypy cluster. Conclusions: We found different patterns of specific schizotypy features in a healthy adult community sample and these clusters presented differential performance in relation with the ability to evoke semantic information.