Visual perceptual and working memory impairments in schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND Impairments in working memory have been proposed to underlie a broad range of cognitive deficits seen in schizophrenia. Visual working memory impairments are frequently reported in schizophrenia. Investigations of visual working memory generally assume intact visual information processing, despite evidence of visual perceptual impairments in schizophrenia. In this study, we evaluated the integrity of the perceptual system for object and spatial visual information and the relevant working memory system, after adjusting for individual perceptual performance differences. METHODS Thirty patients with schizophrenia and 20 healthy control subjects underwent testing using a task of perceptual discrimination of spatial and object visual stimuli. For testing visual working memory, a delay was introduced to the perceptual discrimination task. A thresholding procedure was used so that each subject adequately perceived the information during the working memory test. RESULTS Subjects with schizophrenia exhibited impaired performance relative to controls for object and spatial visual perceptual discrimination. The extent of impairment was greater for the object than for the spatial test. After controlling for perceptual impairments, the subjects with schizophrenia exhibited impaired performance relative to controls for the spatial working memory test but not the object working memory test. CONCLUSIONS Findings implicate dysfunction of posterior brain areas that mediate visual perceptual processing and the prefrontal areas involved in the active maintenance of information during delay intervals. However, the systems that govern object and spatial visual perception and working memory appear to be affected differentially by schizophrenia.

[1]  J M VANDERPLAS,et al.  The association value of random shapes. , 1959, Journal of experimental psychology.

[2]  J. Overall,et al.  The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale , 1962 .

[3]  Braff Dl,et al.  Information processing dysfunction in paranoid schizophrenia: a two-factor deficit. , 1981 .

[4]  D. Saccuzzo,et al.  Information processing dysfunction in paranoid schizophrenia: a two-factor deficit. , 1981, The American journal of psychiatry.

[5]  N C Andreasen,et al.  Negative symptoms in schizophrenia , 1982 .

[6]  Leslie G. Ungerleider,et al.  Object vision and spatial vision: two cortical pathways , 1983, Trends in Neurosciences.

[7]  R. Gur,et al.  Neuropsychological function in schizophrenia. Selective impairment in memory and learning. , 1991, Archives of general psychiatry.

[8]  D L Braff,et al.  The generalized pattern of neuropsychological deficits in outpatients with chronic schizophrenia with heterogeneous Wisconsin Card Sorting Test results. , 1991, Archives of general psychiatry.

[9]  Leslie G. Ungerleider,et al.  Dissociation of object and spatial visual processing pathways in human extrastriate cortex. , 1991, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[10]  Sohee Park,et al.  Schizophrenics show spatial working memory deficits. , 1992, Archives of general psychiatry.

[11]  B. Schwartz,et al.  Schizophrenic feature recognition deficits are independent of task criterion , 1992, Schizophrenia Research.

[12]  P. Goldman-Rakic,et al.  Dissociation of object and spatial processing domains in primate prefrontal cortex. , 1993, Science.

[13]  Sohee Park,et al.  Association of working memory deficit and eye tracking dysfunction in schizophrenia , 1993, Schizophrenia Research.

[14]  A. M. Owen,et al.  Visuospatial memory deficits at different stages of Parkinson's disease , 1993, Neuropsychologia.

[15]  D. Braff.  Information processing and attention dysfunctions in schizophrenia. , 1993, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[16]  K. Nuechterlein,et al.  Backward masking in schizophrenia and mania. I. Specifying a mechanism. , 1994, Archives of general psychiatry.

[17]  R. Gur,et al.  Neuropsychological deficits in neuroleptic naive patients with first-episode schizophrenia. , 1994, Archives of general psychiatry.

[18]  Leslie G. Ungerleider,et al.  Network analysis of cortical visual pathways mapped with PET , 1994, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[19]  N. Cowan,et al.  Auditory sensory ("echoic") memory dysfunction in schizophrenia. , 1995, The American journal of psychiatry.

[20]  Philip D. Harvey,et al.  A pen-and-paper human analogue of a monkey prefrontal cortex activation task: spatial working memory in patients with schizophrenia , 1995, Schizophrenia Research.

[21]  Edward E. Smith,et al.  Spatial versus Object Working Memory: PET Investigations , 1995, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[22]  G. Winocur,et al.  Dissociation of pathways for object and spatial vision: a PET study in humans , 1995, Neuroreport.

[23]  P S Goldman-Rakic,et al.  Spatial working memory deficits in the relatives of schizophrenic patients. , 1995, Archives of general psychiatry.

[24]  M. E. Shenton,et al.  Selective deficits in visual perception and recognition in schizophrenia , 1995, Biological Psychiatry.

[25]  R. McCarley,et al.  Selective deficits in visual perception and recognition in schizophrenia , 1995, Biological Psychiatry.

[26]  C. Carter,et al.  Spatial working memory deficits and their relationship to negative symptoms in unmedicated schizophrenia patients , 1996, Biological Psychiatry.

[27]  T. Goldberg,et al.  Auditory working memory and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance in schizophrenia. , 1997, Archives of general psychiatry.

[28]  Edith V. Sullivan,et al.  Deficits in multiple systems of working memory in schizophrenia , 1997, Schizophrenia Research.

[29]  P. Goldman-Rakic,et al.  Functional and anatomical aspects of prefrontal pathology in schizophrenia. , 1997, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[30]  N. Cowan,et al.  Impaired precision, but normal retention, of auditory sensory ("echoic") memory information in schizophrenia. , 1997, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[31]  A. Owen.  The Functional Organization of Working Memory Processes Within Human Lateral Frontal Cortex: The Contribution of Functional Neuroimaging , 1997, The European journal of neuroscience.

[32]  T. Goldberg,et al.  Visuospatial working memory in patients with schizophrenia , 1997, Biological Psychiatry.

[33]  M. Geyer,et al.  Information processing deficits of schizophrenia patients: relationship to clinical ratings, gender and medication status , 1997, Schizophrenia Research.

[34]  N. Laird,et al.  Using the general linear mixed model to analyse unbalanced repeated measures and longitudinal data. , 1997, Statistics in medicine.

[35]  J Jonides,et al.  Spatial, but not object, delayed response is impaired in early Parkinson's disease. , 1997, Neuropsychology.

[36]  J. Jonides,et al.  Neuroimaging analyses of human working memory. , 1998, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[37]  P. Goldman-Rakic,et al.  Word and tone working memory deficits in schizophrenia. , 1998, Archives of general psychiatry.

[38]  M. García-Pérez.  Forced-choice staircases with fixed step sizes: asymptotic and small-sample properties , 1998, Vision Research.

[39]  Leslie G. Ungerleider,et al.  A neural system for human visual working memory. , 1998, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[40]  D. Braff,et al.  Transient versus sustained visual channels in the visual backward masking deficits of schizophrenia patients , 1998, Biological Psychiatry.

[41]  Leslie G. Ungerleider,et al.  The role of prefrontal cortex in working memory: examining the contents of consciousness. , 1998, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[42]  D. Javitt,et al.  Panmodal processing imprecision as a basis for dysfunction of transient memory storage systems in schizophrenia. , 1999, Schizophrenia bulletin.

[43]  C. Curtis,et al.  Neuropsychological and oculomotor correlates of spatial working memory performance in schizophrenia patients and controls , 1999, Schizophrenia Research.

[44]  D. Hell,et al.  Spatial working memory deficits and clinical symptoms in schizophrenia: a 4-month follow-up study , 1999, Biological Psychiatry.

[45]  P. Goldman-Rakic,et al.  The physiological approach: functional architecture of working memory and disordered cognition in schizophrenia , 1999, Biological Psychiatry.

[46]  R. Cabeza,et al.  Imaging Cognition II: An Empirical Review of 275 PET and fMRI Studies , 2000, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[47]  R. McCarley,et al.  Visual perception and working memory in schizotypal personality disorder. , 2000, The American journal of psychiatry.

[48]  Philip D. Harvey,et al.  Visuospatial working memory in schizotypal personality disorder patients , 2000, Schizophrenia Research.

[49]  P. Goldman-Rakic,et al.  Reversal of antipsychotic-induced working memory deficits by short-term dopamine D1 receptor stimulation. , 2000, Science.

[50]  P. Goldman-Rakic,et al.  Verbal processing deficits in schizophrenia. , 2000, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[51]  J. Cohen,et al.  Selective deficits in prefrontal cortex function in medication-naive patients with schizophrenia. , 2001, Archives of general psychiatry.