Background
We used an event-related functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) approach to
examine the neural basis of the selective associative memory deficit in schizophrenia.
Methods
Fifteen people with schizophrenia and 18 controls were scanned during a pair and item
memory encoding and recognition task. During encoding, subjects studied items and
pairs of visual objects. In a subsequent retrieval task, participants performed an
item recognition memory test (old/new decisions) and an associative recognition test
(intact/rearranged decisions). The fMRI analysis of the recognition data was restricted
to correct items only and a random effects model was used.
Results
At the behavioral level, both groups performed equally well on item recognition, whereas
people with schizophrenia demonstrated lower performance on associative recognition
relative to the control group. At the brain level, the comparison between associative
and item encoding revealed greater activity in the control group in the left prefrontal
cortex and cingulate gyrus relative to the schizophrenia group. During recognition,
greater left dorsolateral prefrontal and right inferior prefrontal activations were
observed in the control group relative to the schizophrenia group.
Conclusion
This fMRI study implicates the prefrontal cortex among other brain regions as the
basis for the selective associative memory encoding and recognition deficit seen in
schizophrenia.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 29, 2006
Accepted:
March 28,
2006
Received in revised form:
February 15,
2006
Received:
October 26,
2005
Identification
Copyright
© 2006 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
