Intact prototype learning in schizophrenia

Abstract

In this study, we examined executive functions and visual prototype learning in patients with schizophrenia ( n=22) and matched healthy control subjects ( n=20). The patients demonstrated marked perseveration in the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), whereas they successfully learned prototypes of dot-pattern category exemplars. These findings are against the hypothesis of a pure generalized cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia, providing preliminary evidence for intact neocortical mechanisms related to perceptual classification functions.