Does hyperpriming reveal impaired spreading of activation in schizophrenia?

Enhancement of semantic priming effects (hyperpriming) has been well documented in schizophrenic patients (Minzenberg et al. 2002 ). In a previous study, we demonstrated that hyperpriming was related to a more pronounced requirement to inhibit unrelated information ( ). On the other hand, several authors have suggested that hyperpriming could reflect enhanced spreading of semantic Lecardeur et al. 2007 activation in schizophrenia ( ; ; ). So far, there are few reports that attempted to study the Spitzer et al. 1993 Spitzer 1997 Moritz et al. 2001 spreading of activation in schizophrenic patients compared to healthy controls, when the links between semantically related information were manipulated. Notably, authors stated that activation could consequently spread farther and further in the semantic networks of schizophrenic patients. Moreover, enhanced spreading of activation was hypothesized to be responsible of the appearance of thought and language disorders in schizophrenic patients. Consequently, we examined whether the manipulation of the type of connection and the semantic distance between prime and target can modulate semantic priming effects in schizophrenic patients compared to healthy controls.