title: Auditory working memory impairments in individuals at familial high risk for schizophrenia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The search for predictors of schizophrenia has accelerated with a growing focus on early intervention and prevention of psychotic illness. Studying nonpsychotic relatives of individuals with schizophrenia enables identification of markers of vulnerability for the illness independent of confounds associated with psychosis. The goal of these studies was to develop new auditory continuous performance tests (ACPTs) and evaluate their effects in individuals with schizophrenia and their relatives.
  
  
  METHODS
  We carried out two studies of auditory vigilance with tasks involving working memory (WM) and interference control with increasing levels of cognitive load to discern the information-processing vulnerabilities in a sample of schizophrenia patients, and two samples of nonpsychotic relatives of individuals with schizophrenia and controls. Study 1 assessed adults (mean age = 41), and Study 2 assessed teenagers and young adults age 13-25 (M = 19).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients with schizophrenia were impaired on all five versions of the ACPTs, whereas relatives were impaired only on WM tasks, particularly the two interference tasks that maximize cognitive load. Across all groups, the interference tasks were more difficult to perform than the other tasks. Schizophrenia patients performed worse than relatives, who performed worse than controls. For patients, the effect sizes were large (Cohen's d = 1.5), whereas for relatives they were moderate (d = ~0.40-0.50). There was no age by group interaction in the relatives-control comparison except for participants <31 years of age.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Novel WM tasks that manipulate cognitive load and interference control index an important component of the vulnerability to schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School.
authors.forename: Larry J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Seidman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Texas A&M Health Science Center, College of Medicine.
authors.forename: Eric C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School.
authors.forename: Anthony J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Giuliano
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School.
authors.forename: Hans C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Breiter
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School.
authors.forename: Jill M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Goldstein
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Center for Behavior Genomics, University of California.
authors.forename: William S
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8629-5609
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Kremen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School.
authors.forename: Heidi W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Thermenos
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Boston University.
authors.forename: Rosemary
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Toomey
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School.
authors.forename: William S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Stone
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School.
authors.forename: Ming T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Tsuang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, SUNY Upstate Medical University.
authors.forename: Stephen V
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9217-3982
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Faraone
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult