title: Working memory functioning in schizophrenia patients and their first-degree relatives: cognitive functioning shedding light on etiology.
abstract: There is accumulating evidence for involvement of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. A primary function supported by the PFC is working memory (WM). Findings from WM studies in schizophrenia can provide insight into the nature of clinical symptoms and cognitive deficits associated with this disorder, as well as begin to suggest areas of underlying neuropathology. To date, studies have not adequately investigated different WM domains (e.g., verbal, spatial, or object) or processing requirements (e.g., maintenance, monitoring, or manipulation), shown to be associated with distinct patterns of neural activation, in schizophrenia patients and their well relatives. Accordingly, this study evaluated the performance of schizophrenia patients, their first-degree biological relatives, and nonpsychiatric controls on a comprehensive battery of WM tasks and investigated the association among WM deficits and schizophrenia-spectrum psychopathology. The findings indicate that schizophrenia patients are consistently impaired on WM tasks, irrespective of WM domain or processing requirements. In contrast, their unaffected relatives are only impaired on WM tasks with higher central executive processing requirements. This pattern of WM performance may further implicate DLPFC dysfunction in the liability for schizophrenia and has implications for future cognitive, genetic, and neurodevelopmental research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychology, Kennedy Krieger Institute, 1750 East Fairmount Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21231, USA.
authors.forename: Heather M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Conklin
authors.forename: Clayton E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Curtis
authors.forename: Monica E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Calkins
authors.forename: William G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Iacono
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009679:Nuclear Family; D010375:Pedigree; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012016:Reference Values; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology