Self-reference recollection effect and its relation to theory of mind: An investigation in healthy controls and schizophrenia.

This study explores the links between the Self-Reference Effect (SRE) and Theory of Mind (ToM) in typical adults and patients with schizophrenia. Participants were assessed with a self-referential memory paradigm investigating the mnemonic effect of both semantic and episodic self-reference with a recognition task associated with the Remember/Know/Guess paradigm. They also completed a self-descriptive scale and shortened versions of the attribution of intention task and the reading the mind in the eyes test as measures of cognitive and affective ToM respectively.

Specific vs general cognitive remediation for executive functioning in schizophrenia: a multicenter randomized trial.

Background: This study assesses the benefits of an individualized therapy (RECOS program) compared with the more general cognitive remediation therapy (CRT).

Methods: 138 participants took part with 65 randomized to CRT and 73 to RECOS. In the RECOS group, participants were directed towards one of five training modules (verbal memory, visuo-spatial memory and attention, working memory, selective attention or reasoning) corresponding to their key cognitive concern whereas the CRT group received a standard program.

Mechanisms of insight in schizophrenia and impact of cognitive remediation therapy.

The origins of poor insight in schizophrenia are still unclear. We contrasted the changes in clinical insight, basic cognitive processes, autobiographical memory and metacognition in 63 outpatients with schizophrenia pseudo-randomly assigned to one of three cognitive remediation groups: one targeting basic cognitive processes (RECOS), a second autobiographical memory (REMAu), and a third metacognitive deficits (MBCT). Three dimensions of insight (awareness of: mental illness, benefit of treatment, psychosocial consequences) improved after treatment, regardless of the group.

Hyperfrontality and hypoconnectivity during refreshing in schizophrenia.

Anomalous activations of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and posterior cerebral areas have been reported in previous studies of working memory in schizophrenia. Several interpretations have been reported: e.g.

Episodic memory and impairment of an early encoding process in schizophrenia.

Investigations of memory impairment in schizophrenia have frequently revealed a strategic processing deficit at encoding. The authors studied an early encoding process, refreshing (in this case, thinking of a stimulus that has just-previously been presented), and its impact on recognition memory in schizophrenia. Following simultaneous presentation of three words or a single word in the top, middle, or bottom position of the screen, 25 patients with schizophrenia and 25 control participants saw and read a new word (read condition), or a word presented on the previous screen (repeat condition), or saw a dot indicating that they should think of and say the last word to have appeared in that position (refresh condition).

Comparing effects of perceptual and reflective repetition on subjective experience during later recognition memory.

Using the Remember/Know procedure, we compared the impact of a reflective repetition by refreshing (i.e., briefly thinking of a just-seen item) and a perceptual repetition (i.

Neural correlates of counting of sequential sensory and motor events in the human brain.

Little is known about the ability to enumerate small numbers of successive stimuli and movements. It is possible that there exist neural substrates that are consistently recruited both to count sensory stimuli from different modalities and for counting movements executed by different effectors. Here, we identify a network of areas that was involved in enumerating small numbers of auditory, visual, and somatosensory stimuli, and in enumerating sequential movements of hands and feet, in the bilateral premotor cortex, presupplementary motor area, posterior temporal cortex, and thalamus.

Assessing a minimal executive operation in schizophrenia.

The minimal cognitive operation of thinking of a just-seen stimulus (refreshing) was studied in 24 patients with schizophrenia and 24 normal controls. Verbal response times were measured when participants read a word, read a word immediately again, or refreshed a word just after it was no longer present. Patients showed equal priming as controls in reading a word for the second time and were slower than controls to say a word only in the refresh condition.