Enhanced vulnerability to distraction does not account for working memory capacity reduction in people with schizophrenia.

ABSTRACT: Although working memory impairment has been well-documented among people with schizophrenia (PSZ), the underlying mechanism of this impairment remains unknown. The present study was conducted in a large sample of PSZ and healthy control subjects (HCS) to test the hypothesis that one putative mechanism-vulnerability to distraction from task-irrelevant stimuli-(1) can account for working memory impairment among PSZ, and (2) is associated with other neurocognitive and clinical variables that are highly predictive of functional outcome in schizophrenia. Participants (127 PSZ and 124 HCS) completed a visual change detection task in which a distractor stimulus (mask) was presented on half of the trials during the delay period between sample and test array. PSZ lost proportionately more informati

SUBMITTER: Erickson M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4331011 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature