SynthesisSchizophrenia research2014
What do we really know about blunted vocal affect and alogia? A meta-analysis of objective assessments.
Synthesis in Schizophrenia research, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Voice Patterns as Markers of Schizophrenia: Building a Cumulative Generalizable Approach Via a Cross-Linguistic and Meta-analysis Based Investigation.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2023Pooled it
- Application of Natural Language Processing (NLP) in Detecting and Preventing Suicide Ideation: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Pooled it
- Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing in Mental Health: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Pooled it
- Motivation and pleasure deficits reflect altered network embedding of normal brain deviations in schizophrenia.Schizophrenia research · 2026Article
- Reading between the lines: Combining pause dynamics and semantic coherence for automated assessment of thought disorder.Neuropsychologia · 2026Article
- Vocal Markers of Schizophrenia: Assessing the Generalizability of Machine Learning Models and Their Clinical Applicability.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2026Article
- Linking speech patterns to brain structure in affective and psychotic disorders: an integrative natural language processing approach.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Disorganisation and depression: a re-examination of how we think and speak when depressed.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Review
- Quantitative semiology: harnessing AI-generated teaching signals in psychiatry.Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience : JPN · 2025Article
- Infant rat ultrasonic vocalizations in the neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- PEPAMARKER: a multicenter cohort study protocol on predictive biomarkers of affectiveFrontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Taking a look at your speech: identifying diagnostic status and negative symptoms of psychosis using convolutional neural networks.NPP - digital psychiatry and neuroscience · 2025Article
- Speech and language patterns in autism: Towards natural language processing as a research and clinical tool.Psychiatry research · 2024Review
- Rationale and Challenges for a New Instrument for Remote Measurement of Negative Symptoms.Schizophrenia bulletin open · 2024Review
- Investigating temporal and prosodic markers in clinical high-risk for psychosis participants using automated acoustic analysis.Early intervention in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Natural Language Processing and Psychosis: On the Need for Comprehensive Psychometric Evaluation.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2022Article
- MDMA for the Treatment of Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Review
- How do social factors relate to blunted facial affect in schizophrenia? A digital phenotyping study using ambulatory video recordings.Journal of psychiatric research · 2022Article
- Computerized analysis of facial expressions in serious mental illness.Schizophrenia research · 2022Article
- Smartphones and the Neuroscience of Mental Health.Annual review of neuroscience · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Deficits in nonverbal vocal expression (e.g., blunted vocal affect, alogia) are a hallmark of schizophrenia and are a focus of the Research Domain Criteria initiative from the National Institute of Mental Health. Results from studies using symptom rating scales suggest that these deficits are profound; on the order of four to six standard deviations. To complement this endeavor, we conducted a meta-analysis of studies employing objective analysis of natural speech in patients with schizophrenia and nonpsychiatric controls. Thirteen studies, collectively including 480 patients with schizophrenia and 326 nonpsychiatric controls, were identified. There was considerable variability across studies in which aspects of vocal communication were examined and in the magnitudes of deficit. Overall, speech production (reflecting alogia) was impaired at a large effects size level (d=-.80; k=13), whereas speech variability (reflecting blunted affect) was much more modest (d=-.36; k=2). Regarding the former, this was largely driven by measures of pause behavior, as opposed to other aspects of speech (e.g., number of words/utterances). On the other hand, ratings of negative symptoms across these studies suggested profound group differences (d=3.54; k=4). These data suggest that only certain aspects of vocal expression are affected in schizophrenia, and highlight major discrepancies between symptom rating and objective-based measures. The discussion centers on advancing objective analysis for understanding vocal expression in schizophrenia and for identifying and defining more homogenous patient subsets for study.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.