Intact hemispheric specialization for spatial and shape working memory in schizophrenia
Dr. Philip S. Holzman died before the completion of this manuscript. The authors would like to dedicate this work to his memory
Received 18 March 2005; received in revised form 9 June 2005; accepted 17 June 2005.
Abstract
Objective
Using functional MRI, we investigated whether, like healthy subjects, patients with schizophrenia show a relative hemispheric specialization in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) for spatial and shape working memory (WM). We hypothesized that reduced specialization in schizophrenia would reflect a failure to adopt optimal domain-specific strategies and would contribute to WM deficits.
Methods
Twelve healthy subjects and 16 schizophrenia patients performed spatial and shape WM tasks and a non-WM control task. Direct comparisons of the spatial and shape WM tasks assessed specialization.
Results
Despite deficient WM performance, both patients and controls showed a relative hemispheric specialization in ventrolateral PFC for spatial (right) and shape (left) WM and did not differ in this regard.
Conclusions
The finding of intact hemispheric specialization in ventrolateral PFC suggests that patients employ the same domain-specific strategies as healthy subjects during spatial and shape WM. Rather than reflecting a failure to adopt the optimal strategy, we hypothesize that WM deficits in schizophrenia reflect impairments of executive processes that are required for WM performance regardless of domain. These processes are associated with activity in the dorsolateral PFC, a region that has been repeatedly implicated in studies of WM.
aDepartments of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA 02129, United States
bDepartment of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA 02129, United States
cAthinoula A. Martinos Center, Charlestown, MA 02129, United States
dPsychology Research Laboratory, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA 02178, United States
eHarvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, United States
Corresponding author. Massachusetts General Hospital-East, 36 First Avenue, Room 420, Charlestown, MA 02129, United States. Tel.: +1 617 724 6148; fax: +1 617 726 0504.
ABSTRACT