Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Psychiatry Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/psychres Schizotypal traits and cognitive performance in siblings of patients with psychosis L. Moreno-Samaniego a, ⁎ , Ana M. Gaviria b , E. Vilella a , J. Valero a , A. Labad a a Hospital Universitari Institut Pere Mata. IISPV. Universitat Rovira i Virgili. CIBERSAM, Ctra. de l’Institut Pere Mata, s/n., Reus, 43206 Tarragona, Spain b Universidad San Buenaventura, Faculty of Psychology, Carrera 56C No. 51-110 Office: 207-B Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Schizotypy Sibling Psychosis Cognitive function Vigilance Sustained attention ABSTRACT Introduction: Schizotypy has been proposed to be the expression of genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia. The available literature shows cognitive similarities between schizotypy and schizophrenia, with mildly impaired performance being associated with schizotypy. This study aims to determine the relationship between schizotypy and cognitive performance in siblings of patients with psychosis. Methods: Schizotypal features and cognitive performance on a neuropsychological battery were compared be- tween 48 siblings of patients with psychosis and 44 healthy controls. The relationships between schizotypy and cognitive performance were analysed by controlling the condition of being a sibling. Results: Siblings showed poorer performance on vigilance/sustained attention (M = 37.6; SD = 7.1) and se- lective attention/interference control/working memory (M = 23.28; SD = 2.7) tasks. The variance in vigilance/ sustained attention performance was explained, at 30%, by the interpersonal factor of schizotypy on the sus- piciousness dimension and the condition of being a sibling. Conclusions: Interpersonal features of schizotypy in siblings of patients with psychosis are associated with def- icits in vigilance/sustained attention performance. 1. Introduction Schizotypy has been shown to have genetic continuity with schi- zophrenia and other psychotic disorders (Chen, 2013; Nelson et al., 2013; Tienari et al., 2000). Schizotypy has a multidimensional nature, such as schizophrenia. The three dimensional solution is the most ac- cepted (Fonseca-Pedrero et al., 2011), with positive, negative and dis- organised dimensions, like has schizophrenia though with more atte- nuated and non-psychotic symptoms (Kety et al., 1994). Currently, different hypotheses regarding genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia exist, and the most consolidated of these are the poly- genic models. They include the neurodevelopmental hypothesis, which suggests that an alteration of the early neurodevelopmental processes could lead to schizophrenia and its attendant cognitive and psychoso- cial deficits (Arnold et al., 2004; Franco et al., 2010; Keshavan, 1999; Keshavan and Hogarty, 1999; Mjellem and Kringlen, 2001; Nehra et al., 2016). The literature shows that people at high genetic risk of developing schizophrenia may present neurobehavioral signs throughout their lives, such as schizotypal personality traits and cognitive dysfunction (Allen et al., 2009; Nehra et al., 2016), that are indicators of vulner- ability to the illness (Hans et al., 1999; Prasad and Keshavan, 2008). Some authors consider these signs to be part of the schizophrenia dia- thesis (Bhojraj et al., 2010; Diwadkar et al., 2006). First-degree re- latives of patients with psychosis have increased levels of schizotypy, predominantly in the negative dimension (Ettinger et al., 2014). Schi- zotypy has been implicated as a key expression of risk in the relation- ship between familial liability and schizophrenia (Lenzenweger, 2006). There is evidence from both neuroimaging and neurological studies that supports the idea that some first-degree relatives of patients with schizophrenia have structural and functional brain changes that are similar to those of their affected relatives, although not to the same degree (Chan et al., 2010; Knöchel et al., 2016; Kong et al., 2012; Neelam et al., 2011; O’Donoghue et al., 2015; Prasad et al., 2015; Seidman et al., 2014; Yan et al., 2015; Zhang et al., 2016). Relatives of patients with psychosis have shown intermediate per- formance between patients and controls with respect to memory, at- tention, and executive function (Bhojraj et al., 2010; Delawalla et al., 2008; Egan et al., 2001; Onwuameze et al., 2016; Şevik et al., 2011; Sitskoorn et al., 2004; Snitz et al., 2006; Szoke et al., 2005). There is http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2017.09.007 Received 27 March 2017; Received in revised form 28 July 2017; Accepted 5 September 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: morenol@peremata.com (L. Moreno-Samaniego), amigago@gmail.com (A.M. Gaviria), vilellae@peremata.com (E. Vilella), valeroj@peremata.com (J. Valero), labada@peremata.com (A. Labad). Psychiatry Research xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx 0165-1781/ © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Moreno-Samaniego, L., Psychiatry Research (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2017.09.007