Olfactory identification performance in individuals with psychometrically-defined schizotypy Vidyulata Kamath ⁎ , Jeffrey S. Bedwell Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL USA Received 26 June 2007; received in revised form 16 October 2007; accepted 18 October 2007 Available online 26 November 2007 Abstract While deficits in olfaction have been well documented in individuals with schizophrenia, less research has focused on olfactory identification performance in psychometrically-defined schizotypy. The Abbreviated Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire was used to define two groups of 26 individuals (62% female) reporting high and average levels of schizotypy. Overall group differences on the Brief Smell Identification Test did not approach statistical significance, and this finding did not differ within either sex. The findings may reflect either the abbreviated nature of the measures used, or a lack of reliable olfactory performance differences in schizotypy. Published by Elsevier B.V. Keywords: Schizotypal; Schizotypy; Olfaction; Olfactory; Schizophrenia; Endophenotype 1. Introduction Reduced performance on olfactory tasks has been repeatedly noted in schizophrenia samples, particularly on tasks of olfactory identification (c.f. Brewer et al., 2001; Goudsmit et al., 2004; Malaspina et al., 2002). Other studies indicate that relatives of persons with schizophrenia also have deficits in olfactory identifica- tion ability (Kopala et al., 1998; Ugur et al., 2005). Within schizotypy samples, decreased olfactory detec- tion threshold has been observed in schizotypic males (Mohr et al., 2001). However, it appears that only one published study has examined the relationship between olfactory identification (in particular) and schizotypal personality symptoms. Park and Schoppe (1997) assessed olfactory identification in 6 males and 6 females scoring high (top 10%) on the Schizotypal Personality Ques- tionnaire (SPQ; Raine, 1991), compared to controls (scoring in bottom 90%). Results showed that only males with schizotypy showed reduced performance on the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT), which showed a large effect size (UPSIT; Doty et al., 1984). This study also reported that only the Interpersonal Deficits factor of the SPQ and UPSIT errors in schizotypic males showed a statistically significant positive correlation. Research in smell identification has often been limited by expensive and time consuming measures of olfaction. However, the Brief Smell Identification Test (B-SIT; Doty, 2001; Doty et al., 1996) is a 12-item version of the 40-item UPSIT (Doty et al., 1984) that takes approxi- mately 5 min to administer. The B-SIT has been shown to Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Schizophrenia Research 100 (2008) 212 – 215 www.elsevier.com/locate/schres ⁎ Corresponding author. Department of Psychology, P.O. Box 161390, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA. Tel.: +1 407 823 5858; fax: +1 407 823 5862. E-mail addresses: vkamath@mail.ucf.edu (V. Kamath), jbedwell@mail.ucf.edu (J.S. Bedwell). 0920-9964/$ - see front matter. Published by Elsevier B.V. doi:10.1016/j.schres.2007.10.008