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Visuospatial memory and learning in first-episode schizophreniform psychosis and established schizophrenia: a functional correlate of hippocampal pathology?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2002

S. J. WOOD
Affiliation:
From the Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Research and Academic Unit, University of Melbourne, Sunshine Hospital, Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria and Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
T. PROFFITT
Affiliation:
From the Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Research and Academic Unit, University of Melbourne, Sunshine Hospital, Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria and Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
K. MAHONY
Affiliation:
From the Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Research and Academic Unit, University of Melbourne, Sunshine Hospital, Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria and Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
D. J. SMITH
Affiliation:
From the Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Research and Academic Unit, University of Melbourne, Sunshine Hospital, Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria and Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
J.-A. BUCHANAN
Affiliation:
From the Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Research and Academic Unit, University of Melbourne, Sunshine Hospital, Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria and Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
W. BREWER
Affiliation:
From the Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Research and Academic Unit, University of Melbourne, Sunshine Hospital, Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria and Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
G. W. STUART
Affiliation:
From the Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Research and Academic Unit, University of Melbourne, Sunshine Hospital, Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria and Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
D. VELAKOULIS
Affiliation:
From the Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Research and Academic Unit, University of Melbourne, Sunshine Hospital, Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria and Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
P. D. McGORRY
Affiliation:
From the Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Research and Academic Unit, University of Melbourne, Sunshine Hospital, Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria and Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
C. PANTELIS
Affiliation:
From the Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Research and Academic Unit, University of Melbourne, Sunshine Hospital, Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria and Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Abstract

Background. Despite a number of studies that have indicated impaired memory function in patients with schizophrenia, there have been few that have used a sensitive measure of right medial temporal lobe pathology. Given the reported findings of reduced hippocampal volume in schizophrenia, we used a theoretically sensitive test of the right medial temporal lobe to determine the nature of the visuospatial memory deficit in the disorder.

Methods. Seventy-six patients (37 with a first-episode schizophreniform psychosis, and 39 with established schizophrenia) were compared with 41 comparison subjects on a number of tests of visuospatial memory. These included spatial working memory, spatial and pattern recognition memory and a pattern-location associative learning test.

Results. Both patient groups displayed recognition memory deficits when compared to the comparison group. However, only those patients with established schizophrenia (of 9 years duration on average) were impaired on the associative learning test.

Conclusions. The results indicate either a progressive decline in visuospatial associative learning ability over the course of the disorder, or that poor visuospatial associative learning is a marker for poor prognosis. In addition, these results have implications for our understanding of the role of the right medial temporal lobe in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

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