Exceptional visuospatial imagery in schizophrenia; implications for madness and creativity

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Schizophrenia (SZ) is historically linked to scientific creativity.
• Visuospatial imagery is crucial for exceptional scientific and mathematical achievements.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether visuospatial imagery is enhanced in individuals with schizophrenia (SZ).
• To examine parietal and frontoparietal functions in SZ compared to healthy controls (HC).

Main Methods:

• Compared SZ and HC on five visuospatial tasks: Paper Folding Test (PFT), jigsaw puzzle task (JPT), Ravens Progressive Matrices, line bisection (LB), and spatial delayed response task (DRT).
• Assessed spatial location, mental imagery manipulation, visuospatial intelligence, hemispatial inattention, and working memory maintenance.

Main Results:

• SZ showed intact visuospatial intelligence and spatial location transformation.
• SZ performed significantly better than HC on the jigsaw puzzle task, indicating enhanced mental imagery manipulation.
• Spatial working memory maintenance was impaired in SZ, and the association between working memory and mental imagery was dissociated.

Conclusions:

• Individuals with schizophrenia exhibit enhanced mental imagery manipulation but impaired working memory, suggesting a disrupted frontoparietal network.
• Abnormalities in parietal-mediated visuospatial functions may serve as a biobehavioral marker for schizophrenia.
• These findings offer insights into the relationship between visuospatial cognition, schizophrenia, and creative cognition.