Front Psychiatry
May 2016
In recent years, computerized and non-computerized cognitive remediation programs have been designed for both individual and group settings. We believe, however, that a common misconception lies in considering the efficiency of a cognitive remediation therapy as resulting from the sole use of a computer. This omits that metacognitive skills need also to be trained throughout the remediation phase.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFunctional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure changes in cerebral activity in patients with schizophrenia after participation in the Cognitive Remediation Program for Schizophrenia and other related disorders (RECOS). As RECOS therapists make use of problem-solving and verbal mediation techniques, known to be beneficial in the rehabilitation of dysexecutive syndromes, we expected an increased activation of frontal areas after remediation. Executive functioning and cerebral activation during a covert verbal fluency task were measured in eight patients with schizophrenia before (T1) and after (T2) 14 weeks of RECOS therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: 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.
Aim: To investigate static and dynamic visuospatial working memory (VSWM) processes in first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients and explore the validity of such measures as specific trait markers of schizophrenia.
Methods: Twenty FEP patients and 20 age-, sex-, laterality- and education-matched controls carried out a dynamic and static VSWM paradigm. At 2-year follow up 13 patients met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (of Mental Health Disorders)--Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) criteria for schizophrenia, 1 for bipolar disorder, 1 for brief psychotic episode and 5 for schizotypal personality disorder.
In schizophrenia patients, glutathione dysregulation at the gene, protein and functional levels, leads to N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor hypofunction. These patients also exhibit deficits in auditory sensory processing that manifests as impaired mismatch negativity (MMN), which is an auditory evoked potential (AEP) component related to NMDA receptor function. N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), a glutathione precursor, was administered to patients to determine whether increased levels of brain glutathione would improve MMN and by extension NMDA function.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent findings suggest that the visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSSP) may be divided into two sub-components processing dynamic or static visual information. This model may be useful to elucidate the confusion of data concerning the functioning of the VSSP in schizophrenia. The present study examined patients with schizophrenia and matched controls in a new working memory paradigm involving dynamic (the Ball Flight Task - BFT) or static (the Static Pattern Task - SPT) visual stimuli.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeveral studies have shown that source-monitoring errors are related to verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia. An exploratory pilot study has been carried out to investigate the possibility of training patients in how to avoid errors in source-monitoring. One patient with paranoid schizophrenia and persistent thought insertions was trained for 6 hours to use mnemonic techniques to compensate specific deficits in source-monitoring.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeveral studies have shown that schizophrenia is characterized by impaired frontal lobe functions, functions that are responsible, for example, for the management of rules, strategic reasoning, and selective attention. Using event-related potentials (ERP), we assessed the brain's electrical activity in a group of patients with schizophrenia (n=11) and a healthy control group (n=14) during a reaction time task requiring the use of a rule. ERP waves were compared with those elicited in a similar task based on a direct sensory association.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEgocentric distance estimation implies that the subject perceives his own location in the environment. In a simulated environment, subjects have to transpose perceptively their own observation point in order to assume their virtual body position. As only visual information specifies this position, their ability to perceive the camera viewpoint should be linked to the field dependence independence factor (FDI).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRev Med Suisse Romande
April 2004
Two years ago, the "E. Minkowski" section of the "Département Universitaire de Psychiatrie Adulte" in Lausanne (DUPA) developed a cognitive remediation program for young schizophrenic patients. Preliminary results indicate a significant improvement in cognitive performance in most patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecently the study of induced gamma band oscillations has focused on their modulation by top-down processes, mainly attention. Numerous studies have observed an increase in induced gamma band energy with increases in covert selective attention and visual perception. The current study investigated the modulation of visually induced gamma band oscillations by top-down processes associated with task complexity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHigher cognitive processes include the ability to reliably transform sensory or mnemonic information. These processes either occur automatically or they are consciously controlled. To compare these two types of information processing, we developed a reaction time task that requires either a rule operation or else a direct sensory association.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe studied top-down visual processes in schizophrenia by analyzing visual event-related potentials (ERPs) during a gestalt recognition task, after subjects (patients with schizophrenia, n = 10; controls, n = 14) were trained to perceive three different geometrical shapes. Recognition performance of patients was poorer under both the figure and the nonfigure conditions then that of normal controls. ERPs analysis indicated that P300 amplitudes of the patients were significantly smaller than those of controls during correct figure detection trials.
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