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Thought disorder in schizophrenia: working memory and impaired context
Martin Harrow1, Thomas H Jobe, Ellen S Herbener
1Department of Psychiatry MC 912, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1601 West Taylor St, Chicago, IL 60612, USA.
The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
|January 14, 2004
Summary
Thought disorder in schizophrenia patients is not solely due to working memory deficits. Findings show thought disorder persists even when external stimuli are readily visible, suggesting other underlying mechanisms.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Cognitive Neuroscience
Background:
- Thought disorder is a core symptom in schizophrenia.
- Previous theories suggested working memory deficits contribute significantly to thought disorder.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if thought disorder in schizophrenia is primarily caused by difficulties in holding external stimuli or context in working memory.
- To differentiate between working memory load and stimulus visibility as factors in thought disorder.
Main Methods:
- Assessed 231 early phase acute inpatients (68 schizophrenia, 38 bipolar manic).
- Administered two thought disorder tests: one requiring stimuli held in working memory, another with stimuli continuously visible.
- Compared thought disorder severity across conditions.
Main Results:
- Thought-disordered patients exhibited similar levels of thought disorder regardless of working memory load.
- Patients with thought disorder on the working memory task were also more thought disordered on the continuous vision task (p < 0.001).
Conclusions:
- The data do not support the hypothesis that thought disorder is mainly a consequence of impaired working memory for external stimuli or context.
- An alternative explanation for thought disorder in schizophrenia is proposed, moving beyond a purely working memory-centric view.