title: Intact attentional control of working memory encoding in schizophrenia.
abstract: This study reports evidence that individuals with schizophrenia (SC) demonstrate intact attentional selection for visual working memory (WM) storage. A group of 62 participants with SC and 55 control participants without SC were studied in a series of 5 experiments that examined the ability to use top-down and bottom-up cues to guide WM encoding, as well as the ability to spontaneously select a subset of representations for storage. Participants with SC exhibited a consistent and robust ability to use selective attention in the control of WM in all 5 experiments, demonstrating a remarkable island of preserved functioning given the broad spectrum of impairments of attention and WM that have been widely reported in those with SC. These findings indicate that attention is not globally impaired in SC and make it possible to delineate more precisely the nature of the specific impairment of attention in this disorder.
authors.affiliation: Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. jgold@mprc.umaryland.edu
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Gold
authors.forename: Rebecca L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Fuller
authors.forename: Benjamin M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.forename: Robert P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: McMahon
authors.forename: Elsie L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Braun
authors.forename: Steven J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Luck
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D003463:Cues; D006801:Humans; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index