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Working Memory Training for Older Participants: A Control Group Training Regimen and Initial Intellectual Functioning Assessment
Published on: September 20, 2020
Control of working memory content in schizophrenia.
Britta Hahn1, Andrew Hollingworth, Benjamin M Robinson
1University of Maryland School of Medicine, Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, P.O. box 21247, Baltimore, MD 21228, USA. bhahn@mprc.umaryland.edu
Schizophrenia Research
|November 15, 2011
Summary
People with schizophrenia (PSZ) efficiently clear non-essential information from working memory (WM), suggesting a narrow processing focus. This rapid WM clearance may reflect a negative symptom trait rather than reduced capacity.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
Background:
- Schizophrenia is associated with working memory (WM) deficits.
- These deficits may stem from difficulties managing WM content, not just reduced capacity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the ability to eliminate and update WM content in people with schizophrenia (PSZ) and healthy control subjects (HCS).
- To explore the relationship between WM content management and cognitive capacity or negative symptoms in PSZ.
Main Methods:
- Participants viewed object images and received cues indicating which item was most likely to be tested.
- A second cue prompted participants to prioritize a new item, incentivizing the clearance of the old item from WM.
- Performance was measured by memory for cued items and efficiency of WM content clearance.
Main Results:
- Both HCS and PSZ showed improved memory for cued items.
- PSZ demonstrated more efficient clearance of no-longer-essential WM items compared to HCS.
- WM clearance efficiency in PSZ correlated with memory for the newly prioritized item and with poverty of speech, a negative symptom.
Conclusions:
- PSZ may manage WM content by rapidly clearing non-essential information, potentially reflecting a negative symptom trait.
- This efficient clearance is adaptive for PSZ but not linked to overall WM capacity.
- Findings suggest a narrower processing focus in PSZ, possibly related to negative symptoms.
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