Sex differences in higher-order cognition in schizophrenia and unaffected first-degree relatives: a longitudinal, family study
Vicent Balanzá-Martínez, Joan Vicent Sánchez-Ortí, Patricia Correa-Ghisays, Gabriel Selva-Vera, Tamsyn E. Van Rheenen, Rafael Tabarés-Seisdedos · 2026
Read Sex differences in higher-order cognition in schizophrenia and unaffected first-degree relatives: a longitudinal, family study by Vicent Balanzá-Martínez, Joan Vicent Sánchez-Ortí, Patricia Correa-Ghisays, Gabriel Selva-Vera, Tamsyn E. Van Rheenen, Rafael Tabarés-Seisdedos (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13526111.txt.
Description
Vicent Balanzá-Martínez and others examine, in a 2026 longitudinal family study, whether sex shapes higher-order thinking in schizophrenia and in unaffected first-degree relatives. Sex differences in the illness itself are well documented, yet evidence on executive function and working memory in the chronic stage was disputed. The team predicted sex effects would be negligible.
A total of 266 people, comprising 113 people with schizophrenia, 58 unaffected relatives, and 95 healthy controls, completed a full neuropsychological battery twice over one year. No significant sex differences appeared in executive or working memory performance in any group. Patients still performed markedly worse than relatives and controls on most tasks. The authors say the null result extends earlier evidence to relatives, suggesting the cognitive deficit travels with illness risk rather than with sex.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Vicent Balanzá-Martínez, Joan Vicent Sánchez-Ortí, Patricia Correa-Ghisays, Gabriel Selva-Vera, Tamsyn E. Van Rheenen, Rafael Tabarés-Seisdedos |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 33421 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |