Automated Detection of Increased Metaphor Production in Open-Ended Speech in Schizophrenia and its Risk States

Clinicians have long observed peculiarities in the use of figurative language by individuals with schizophrenia, as part of larger expressive deficits. Natural language processing has been used to predict psychosis onset (Bedi et al., 2015; Corcoran et al., 2018), identifying features related to semantic coherence and syntactic complexity. Here we examine use of metaphor across the psychosis spectrum.