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Investigating the Effects of Antipsychotics and Schizotypy on the N400 Using Event-Related Potentials and Semantic Categorization
Published on: November 19, 2014
Articulatory rehearsal in verbal working memory: a possible neurocognitive endophenotype that differentiates between
Oliver Gruber1, Eva Gruber, Peter Falkai
1Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Saarland University Hospital, Homburg Saar, Germany. oliver.gruber@uniklinikum-saarland.de <oliver.gruber@uniklinikum-saarland.de>
Abstract:
Recent fMRI studies have identified brain systems underlying different components of working memory in healthy individuals. The aim of this study was to compare the functional integrity of these neural networks in terms of behavioural performance in patients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and healthy controls. In order to detect specific working memory deficits based on dysfunctions of underlying brain circuits we used the same verbal and visuospatial Sternberg item-recognition tasks as in previous neuroimaging studies. Clinical and performance data from matched groups consisting of 14 subjects each were statistically analyzed. Schizophrenic patients exhibited pronounced impairments of both verbal and visuospatial working memory, whereas verbal working memory performance was preserved in schizoaffective patients. The findings provide first evidence that dysfunction of a brain system subserving articulatory rehearsal could represent a biological marker which differentiates between schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.
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