title: Computerized cognitive training restores neural activity within the reality monitoring network in schizophrenia.
abstract: Schizophrenia patients suffer from severe cognitive deficits, such as impaired reality monitoring. Reality monitoring is the ability to distinguish the source of internal experiences from outside reality. During reality monitoring tasks, schizophrenia patients make errors identifying "I made it up" items, and even during accurate performance, they show abnormally low activation of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a region that supports self-referential cognition. We administered 80 hr of computerized training of cognitive processes to schizophrenia patients and found improvement in reality monitoring that correlated with increased mPFC activity. In contrast, patients in a computer games control condition did not show any behavioral or neural improvements. Notably, recovery in mPFC activity after training was associated with improved social functioning 6 months later. These findings demonstrate that a serious behavioral deficit in schizophrenia, and its underlying neural dysfunction, can be improved by well-designed computerized cognitive training, resulting in better quality of life.
authors.affiliation: San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94121, USA. karuna.subramaniam@ucsf.edu
authors.forename: Karuna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Subramaniam
authors.forename: Tracy L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Luks
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.forename: Gregory V
authors.initials: GV
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.forename: Srikantan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nagarajan
authors.forename: Sophia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vinogradov
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply / Q000503:physiopathology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D013813:Therapy, Computer-Assisted
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen