Developmental Instability and Markers of Schizotypy in University Students

Abstract

Fluctuating asymmetries (FA) and minor physical anomalies (MPAs) are markers of developmental instability (DI), an index of the degree to which an organism was subject to genomic or environmental stress during development. Measures of DI are characteristic of schizophrenia and are thought to reflect an underlying genetic liability for schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Whereas MPAs reflect developmental stress relatively early in the first trimester in utero, skeletal FAs reflect developmental stress throughout the lifespan. Both measures were collected to provide some indication of the associated developmental time course. In addition to DI measures, several psychometric measures of schizotypy were administered in a sample of university students ( n = 81). It was hypothesized that increased DI may relate to schizotypal symptoms in a group of healthy undergraduate students. Schizotypy scores were positively correlated with FA, but not MPAs. This finding suggests that DI, as indexed by FA, is important for normal range variation in schizotypal characteristics, just as it is important for normal range variation in intelligence. Second, considered in the context of studies demonstrating that schizophrenia is associated with elevated MPAs, these results suggest that developmental stress likely occurs earlier in development for schizophrenia than schizotypy.