title: Is there an affective working memory deficit in patients with chronic schizophrenia?
abstract: Research interest in affective working memory has rapidly grown in the last decade. In this study we investigated working memory functions for affective and neutral words in a group of 22 patients with chronic schizophrenia and 22 healthy controls. In particular, participants were administered the operation working memory span task in which affective and neutral words had to be remembered. Results showed that patients made significantly more intrusion errors, recalling off-goal information, and showed poorer long-term memory performance than controls. In addition, affective trials showed the largest number of intrusion errors. These results suggest that a general attentional control deficit, especially over affective information, may underly failures to remember in chronic schizophrenia patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience and Imaging, University of Chieti, Italy. n.mammarella@unich.it
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mammarella
authors.forename: Beth
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fairfield
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: De Leonardis
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Carretti
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Borella
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Frisullo
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Domenico
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*