The Virtual Tray of Objects Task as a novel method to electrophysiologically measure visuo-spatial recognition memory.

We explored a novel method to electrophysiologically measure visuo-spatial recognition memory using a modified version of the Virtual Tray of Objects Task (VTOT). Event-related potentials (ERP) were recorded from 18 healthy volunteers during performance in the VTOT. Participants were required to detect random repetitions of three-dimensional visual stimuli (OLD) and to refrain from responding to non-repeated stimuli (NEW).

Mismatched expressions decrease face recognition and corresponding ERP old/new effects in schizophrenia.

Objective: The objective was to investigate the electrophysiological (ERP) correlates of mismatched expression on face recognition in schizophrenia.

Method: Expression-change effects and associated ERPs were explored in patients with schizophrenia (n = 20) and paired comparison participants (n = 20) on a long-term face-recognition task.

Results: A facial-expression change decreased discriminability for patients with schizophrenia than for healthy participants.

ERP investigation of study-test background mismatch during face recognition in schizophrenia.

Old/new effects on event-related potentials (ERP) were explored in 20 patients with schizophrenia and 20 paired comparison subjects during unfamiliar face recognition. Extrinsic perceptual changes - which influence the overall familiarity of an item while retaining face-intrinsic features for use in structural face encoding - were manipulated between the study phase and the test. The question raised here concerns whether these perceptual incongruities would have a different effect on the sense of familiarity and the corresponding behavioral and ERP measures in the two groups.

Impairment not only in remembering but also in knowing previously seen faces and words in schizophrenia.

Patients with schizophrenia have pronounced deficits in face recognition memory that severely hamper their social skills. The functional mechanisms of these impairments remain unknown. According to the dual-process theory, recognition memory comprises two distinct components: recollection and familiarity.

Individual differences in face recognition memory: comparison among habitual short, average, and long sleepers.

Research indicates that habitual short sleepers show more rapid accumulation of slow-wave sleep at the beginning of the night. Enhancement in performance on declarative memory tasks has been associated with early NonREM sleep, consisting of the highest percentage of slow-wave sleep. Twenty-four subjects (eight short sleepers 7 but <9h, seven long >or=9h) were tested.

Relationship between psychotic and obsessive compulsive symptoms in schizophrenia.

The presence of obsessive compulsive symptoms (OCSs) in schizophrenia was recognized as early as the first descriptions of the illness. Studies investigating the association between OCSs and schizophrenia have defined their co-occurrence in terms of co-morbidity and compared schizophrenia patients separated into groups according to whether they presented OCSs or not. However, most of these studies did not take both the complexity of the schizophrenia phenomenology and that of OCSs into account.

Sex differences in memory processing in schizophrenia: an event-related potential (ERP) study.

Recently, research has begun to examine sex differences in cognitive functions in schizophrenia and whether such sex differences reflect normal, exaggerated, or reversed sexual dimorphism. This study examined this question by using event-related potentials (ERPs). ERPs were recorded in a recognition memory task in 18 patients and 18 matched control subjects.

Temperament and executive dysfunctions in schizophrenia.

Recent studies suggest that both executive dysfunction and personality traits combine with symptoms to affect the social outcome of persons with schizophrenia. This study was designed to investigate how personality traits influence executive function in schizophrenia. Forty-four patients with schizophrenia and twenty-two healthy subjects were assessed for personality using the temperament and character inventory.

Event-related potentials differentiates the processes involved in the effects of sleep on recognition memory.

This study examined the role of sleep on event-related potential (ERP) indicators of memory following sleep and wake. We expected a larger ERP effect due to a facilitory effect of sleep on memory. During the study session, subjects memorized a series of stimuli (faces).

Intrusion errors in explicit memory: their differential relationship with clinical and social outcome in chronic schizophrenia.

Introduction: Memory deficits might account for clinical and adaptive differences between groups of patients with chronic schizophrenia. We investigated the qualitative factors of memory that influence clinical and social status.

Methods: Psychosocial functioning, clinical symptoms, and memory function were assessed in 99 patients at four time points over a 16-month period using recall scores for semantically related words, unrelated words, paired associated learning, and word span.

Rivastigmine treatment as an add-on to antipsychotics in patients with schizophrenia and cognitive deficits.

Objective: Although new atypical antipsychotic agents have been found to improve overall cognitive function in patients with schizophrenia (SZ), some aspects of memory, attention and executive functions still remain impaired. Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors, such as rivastigmine, have been shown to improve cognition in other disorders, particularly Alzheimer's disease. Dysfunctions in cholinergic systems, especially in the prefrontal cortex, have been identified in SZ, suggesting that cholinesterase inhibitors may be effective in treating cognitive deficits in this disease.

Use of the process dissociation procedure to study the contextual effects on face recognition in schizophrenia: familiarity, associative recollection and discriminative recollection.

Contextual effects were explored in schizophrenia patients and paired comparison subjects during a long-term face recognition task. The objective was to investigate the contextual effects on face recognition by manipulating, in the same experiment, the perceptual context of the face (intrinsic vs. extrinsic) and the task context (inclusion vs.

Are cholinergic enhancers beneficial for memory in schizophrenia? An event-related potentials (ERPs) study of rivastigmine add-on therapy in a crossover trial.

Studies have reported beneficial effects of cholinergic enhancers, e.g., rivastigmine, on memory in schizophrenia but others have not.

Are there common mechanisms in sensation seeking and reality distortion in schizophrenia? A study using memory event-related potentials.

A growing literature suggests that the characteristics of sensation seeking and reality distortion expressed in schizophrenia share several mechanisms. In a previous study, the comparison of patients with high vs. low reality distortion using event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded in a recognition memory task for unfamiliar faces identified neural and cognitive anomalies specifically related to the expression of these symptoms.

The relationships between symptom dimensions and dysphoria in schizophrenia.

Previous studies have suggested that qualitatively distinct aspects of dysphoria (anxiety and depression) are related to specific dimension of schizophrenia symptomatology. Most of these studies used simple dimensions and dysphoria models, although finer distinctions could help defining specific relationships. This study examined the relationships of distinctive aspects of depression and anxiety (both state and trait) with symptom dimensions.

Changes in the neuropsychological correlates of clinical dimensions between the acute and stable phase of schizophrenia.

This study was designed to investigate whether the neuropsychological correlates of the symptom dimensions of schizophrenia vary with the clinical state in patients followed from the acute to stable the phase of the illness. Fifteen patients were assessed for symptoms (SAPS-SANS) and undergone a complete neuropsychological assessment at two sessions. The first session (S1) was carried out within six days after admission, i.

Gender differences in memory processing: evidence from event-related potentials to faces.

This study investigated gender differences on memory processing using event-related potentials (ERPs). Behavioral data and ERPs were recorded in 16 males and 10 females during a recognition memory task for faces. The behavioral data results showed that females performed better than males.

The cognitive and anatomo-functional basis of reality distortion in schizophrenia: a view from memory event-related potentials.

This study investigated the neural and cognitive correlates of reality distortion in schizophrenia by using event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded in a recognition memory task for face. This task has been chosen because previous studies have shown that it provides distinct indices related to specific cognitive processes and to the functioning of specific brain regions. ERPs have been recorded in controls and schizophrenia patients separated into high scorers (RD+) and low-scorers (RD-) according to their Reality Distortion score (hallucination and delusion SAPS subscales).

The dimensional symptom structure of schizophrenia and its association with temperament and character.

Recent studies suggest that personality may influence symptom expression and social functioning in schizophrenia. This study investigated the relationships between personality and symptom dimensions in schizophrenia patients. Fifty-two schizophrenia patients and 25 five healthy subjects were assessed using the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI).