title: Verbal learning and memory in schizophrenic and Parkinson's disease patients.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the neurofunctional substrate of verbal learning and memory impairments in schizophrenic patients. In this pilot study, our aim was to compare the memory disturbance of schizophrenic patients to the subcortico-frontal memory profile of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. The California Verbal Learning Test, a verbal episodic memory test, was administered to 60 subjects, 20 patients with schizophrenia, 20 patients with PD and 20 healthy control subjects. All subjects were aged between 50 and 70 years and all patients were in a stable phase. Like the Parkinson patients, the schizophrenic patients showed a major deficit of retrieval characterized by deficit of recalls but contrarily to PD patients, schizophrenic patients' encoding scores were altered. These impairments in episodic memory could suggest a dysfunction of the subcortico-frontal circuits in schizophrenic patients. However, they demonstrated an additional encoding deficit associated with probable frontal in situ alteration.
authors.affiliation: Groupe d'Imagerie Neurofonctionnelle (GIN), Unité Mixte de Recherche CNRS 6095/CEA, Université de Caen et Paris V, Centre Cyeron, BIH. Berguerel, France.
authors.forename: Iris
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: van Oostrom
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dollfus
authors.forename: Perine
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Brazo
authors.forename: Pascale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Abadie
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Halbecq
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Théry
authors.forename: Rose Marie
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Marié
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008432:Mathematical Computing; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000503:physiopathology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology