Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Biological Causes of Schizophrenia

Biological Causes of Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia, a severe psychiatric disorder, arises from a complex interplay of biological factors, including genetic predisposition, structural brain abnormalities, neurotransmitter dysregulation, and developmental irregularities. These factors collectively contribute to the onset and progression of the disorder, which typically manifests in late adolescence or early adulthood.
Genetic Factors in Schizophrenia
The genetic basis of schizophrenia is strongly supported by family and twin studies.

Working Memory

Working Memory

Working memory refers to a combination of components, including short-term memory and attention, that allow an individual to hold information temporarily as we perform cognitive tasks. It is an essential cognitive function that enables the execution of complex tasks such as problem-solving, comprehension, and reasoning. Unlike short-term memory, which simply involves the storage of information for a brief period, working memory involves the active manipulation and processing of this information.

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Attention and learning strategies reveal distinct dimensions of psychiatric diseases.

Research square·2026

Same author

Regional, functional and transcriptomic decoding of multidimensional brain structure alterations in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Nature communications·2026

Same author

QuNex recipes: Executable, human-readable workflows for reproducible neuroimaging research.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)·2026

Same author

Toward trustworthy clinical AI for obsessive-compulsive disorder: reliability, generalizability, and interpretability of a transformer model across the ENIGMA-OCD consortium.

medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences·2026

Same author

A common symptom geometry of mood improvement under sertraline and placebo associated with distinct neural patterns - CORRIGENDUM.

Psychological medicine·2026

Same author

Disrupted Higher-Order Topology in OCD Brain Networks Revealed by Hodge Laplacian - an ENIGMA Study.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026

Same journal

Identifying in-the-moment alterations in socioemotional connection in youth at clinical high risk for psychosis and their caregivers via positivity resonance.

Schizophrenia research·2026

Same journal

Positive affect during social interactions predicts goal progress and social motivation in daily life for people with schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia research·2026

Same journal

Quality evaluation of randomized controlled trials of antipsychotic drugs for schizophrenia published in Chinese journals.

Schizophrenia research·2026

Same journal

FL-SDGIN: A federated graph learning approach for schizophrenia diagnosis integrating static and dynamic brain functional networks.

Schizophrenia research·2026

Same journal

Weight loss and gut microbial changes associated with semaglutide among people living with schizophrenia receiving clozapine or olanzapine: An open-label 24-week semaglutide intervention and 76-week trial.

Schizophrenia research·2026

Same journal

Converting negative symptom dimension scores across SANS and PANSS.

Schizophrenia research·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 19, 2026

A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions

A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions

Published on: July 16, 2015

A broken filter: prefrontal functional connectivity abnormalities in schizophrenia during working memory

Alan Anticevic¹, Grega Repovs, John H Krystal

¹Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, 300 George Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. alan.anticevic@yale.edu

Schizophrenia Research

|August 7, 2012

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Schizophrenia patients show abnormal brain connectivity in working memory (WM) networks, specifically failing to adjust dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) connections during distraction. This impaired functional connectivity impacts cognitive control and distracter resistance.

More Related Videos

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Impairing Effect of Emotion on Cognition

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Impairing Effect of Emotion on Cognition

Published on: February 1, 2012

Exploring the Neural Correlates of Cognitive Reappraisal in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Using Task-based Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Exploring the Neural Correlates of Cognitive Reappraisal in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Using Task-based Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Published on: March 14, 2025

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 19, 2026

A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions

A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions

Published on: July 16, 2015

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Impairing Effect of Emotion on Cognition

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Impairing Effect of Emotion on Cognition

Published on: February 1, 2012

Exploring the Neural Correlates of Cognitive Reappraisal in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Using Task-based Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Exploring the Neural Correlates of Cognitive Reappraisal in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Using Task-based Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Published on: March 14, 2025

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Neuroscience
Psychiatry

Background:

Working memory (WM) deficits are a core challenge in schizophrenia, significantly impacting patient outcomes.
Previous research linked dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activation to WM distracter resistance in healthy individuals, but not in schizophrenia patients.
Functional connectivity within WM networks may underlie WM impairments in schizophrenia.

Purpose of the Study:

To test the hypothesis that schizophrenia is associated with functional connectivity abnormalities within DLPFC networks during WM distraction.
To investigate how DLPFC functional connectivity differs between schizophrenia patients and controls under distracting conditions during a WM task.

Main Methods:

28 schizophrenia patients and 24 healthy controls performed a delayed non-verbal WM task with visual distraction.
Task-based functional connectivity (tb-fcMRI) of the DLPFC was computed during WM maintenance with and without distraction.
Whole-brain connectivity patterns were analyzed to identify group differences in network modulation.

Main Results:

Schizophrenia patients failed to modulate DLPFC tb-fcMRI during distraction, unlike controls.
Controls showed reduced DLPFC-amygdala connectivity during distraction, while patients showed increased DLPFC-medio-dorsal thalamus connectivity.
Healthy controls exhibited increased positive coupling between DLPFC and other prefrontal regions during distraction, a pattern absent in patients.

Conclusions:

Schizophrenia is characterized by aberrant functional connectivity within DLPFC-based WM networks, particularly during distraction.
The findings suggest a breakdown in DLPFC coupling with both subcortical (thalamic/limbic) and cortical regions contributes to impaired distracter resistance in schizophrenia.
These connectivity deficits may represent a key neural mechanism underlying cognitive impairments in schizophrenia.