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The nature and extent of working memory dysfunction in schizophrenia
Author(s) -
Cao Xiaoyan,
Li Zhi,
Metcalfe Hugo M.,
Yang Tianxiao,
Tan Shuping,
Wang Ya,
Hong Xiaohong,
Li Zhanjiang,
Yu Xin,
Cheung Eric F. C.,
Neumann David L.,
Shum David H. K.,
Chan Raymond C. K.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
psych journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.417
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 2046-0260
pISSN - 2046-0252
DOI - 10.1002/pchj.30
Subject(s) - schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , working memory , psychology , verbal memory , audiology , spatial memory , medicine , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , neuroscience , cognition , psychiatry
This study aimed to examine verbal and visual‐spatial working memory ( WM ) dysfunction in patients with schizophrenia. We compared 60 patients with schizophrenia with 57 healthy controls (matched for age, educational level, and IQ ) on three WM tasks. Patients with schizophrenia performed significantly more poorly than healthy controls on verbal, visual, and spatial WM tests. Moreover, WM deficits were inversely associated with both the positive and negative symptoms of the patients. Taken together, these findings suggest that there are pervasive WM impairments in patients with schizophrenia. In addition, clinical features may play a significant role in the expression of WM deficits.