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Working memory in schizophrenia: a systematic study of specific modalities and processes.
Piotr J Quee1, Paul A T M Eling, Frank M M A van der Heijden
1Department of Psychiatry & Rob Giel Research Center, University Medical Center Groningen, P.O. Box 30.001, 9700 RB Groningen, The Netherlands. p.j.quee@med.umcg.nl
Psychiatry Research
|June 1, 2010
Summary
Schizophrenia patients show general working memory (WM) impairments, performing slower and less accurately than controls. Specific deficits in verbal or visuospatial WM components were not observed, suggesting non-specific performance decline.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Working memory (WM) impairments are a core symptom in schizophrenia.
- The relationship between specific WM component disturbances in schizophrenia remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how verbal and visuospatial working memory components are affected in schizophrenia.
- To examine the impact of varying processing demands (maintenance and manipulation) on working memory performance in schizophrenia patients.
Main Methods:
- A Delayed-Matching-To-Sample task was administered to 24 schizophrenia patients and 24 healthy controls.
- Verbal (pseudowords) and visuospatial (Chinese characters) stimuli were used under low and high processing demands.
- Reaction time and accuracy were recorded to assess performance.
Main Results:
- Schizophrenia patients were generally slower and less accurate than healthy controls.
- Patients exhibited slower reaction times on verbal tasks but not reduced accuracy.
- Accuracy deficits increased only when both maintenance and manipulation demands rose simultaneously.
Conclusions:
- Schizophrenia patients exhibit non-specific working memory performance impairments.
- No specific deficit in any single working memory component was identified.
- Findings suggest a generalized decline in cognitive processing rather than a specific WM component deficit.
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