 |
|
The Neural Basis of Relational Memory Deficits in Schizophrenia
Dost Öngür, MD, PhD;
Thomas J. Cullen, MD, PhD;
Daniel H. Wolf, MD, PhD;
Michael Rohan, SM;
Paul Barreira, MD;
Martin Zalesak, MSc;
Stephan Heckers, MD
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2006;63:356-365.
Context Memory deficits are common in schizophrenia. Recent studies have demonstrated that relational memory is particularly impaired.
Objective To study the neural correlates of relational memory in schizophrenia using functional magnetic resonance imaging.
Design Cross-sectional case-control study.
Setting Academic medical center.
Subjects Twenty patients with schizophrenia and 17 control subjects.
Main Outcome Measures Behavioral performance and brain activity were assessed during the discrimination of previously seen and novel pairs of visual stimuli, which varied in the degree of relational memory load. We performed whole-brain and region-of-interest (hippocampus) analyses.
Results Schizophrenic subjects displayed normal activation of the presupplementary motor area and ventral prefrontal cortex, but significantly decreased recruitment of the right parietal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex when discriminating novel pairs derived from a sequence of stimuli. Discrimination accuracy was decreased in schizophrenia only when the flexible representation of a sequence was required. This selective deficit was associated with decreased activation of the right parietal cortex and left hippocampus.
Conclusions Schizophrenia is characterized by a specific deficit of relational memory, which is associated with impaired function of the parietal cortex and hippocampus. Abnormal relational memory may be at the core of 2 prominent features of schizophrenia, ie, cognitive deficits and psychosis.
Author Affiliations: Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Program, McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School (Drs Öngür, Cullen, Wolf, Barreira, and Heckers), Brain Imaging Center, McLean Hospital (Mr Rohan), and Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard–Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Mr Zalesak), Boston, Mass.
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES
How Frequent is Chronic Multiyear Delusional Activity and Recovery in Schizophrenia: A 20-Year Multi-follow-up
Harrow and Jobe
Schizophr Bull 2008;0:sbn074v1-sbn074.
ABSTRACT
| FULL TEXT
Imaging Genetic Liability to Schizophrenia: Systematic Review of fMRI Studies of Patients' Nonpsychotic Relatives
MacDonald et al.
Schizophr Bull 2008;0:sbn053v1-sbn053.
FULL TEXT
|
