Deterioration of visuospatial associative memory following a first psychotic episode: a long-term follow-up study

Abstract

Areas of cognition that develop prior to psychosis onset, such as visuospatial and verbal associative memory, may be preserved early in the illness. Later deterioration in visuospatial memory ability may relate to progressive structural and functional brain abnormalities that occurs following psychosis onset.

Hippocampal subfields and visuospatial associative memory across stages of schizophrenia-spectrum disorder

“…Although previous studies have also identified visuospatial associative memory deficits in individuals with chronic schizophrenia (Wood et al ., 2002; Stip et al ., 2005; Donohoe et al ., 2008), prior studies of recent-onset patients found preserved functioning in this domain (Wood et al ., 2002; Barnett et al ., 2005; Wannan et al ., 2018), with deterioration occurring only after illness onset (Haring et al ., 2017; Wannan et al ., 2018). One potential explanation for the visuospatial associative memory deficit in our recent-onset group is their longer duration of illness compared with previous studies (Wood et al ., 2002; Wannan et al ., 2018). Given that the most pronounced brain changes in schizophrenia-spectrum illness have been shown to occur in the first 6–12 months following illness onset (Bartholomeusz et al ., 2017), we might expect that cognitive decline would occur in a similarly short period.…”

“…Visuospatial associative memory was measured using the Visuospatial Paired-Associate Learning (PAL) Task from the CANTAB (Cambridge Cognition, 2018). Details of this task have been described previously (Wannan et al ., 2018). The total number of trials required to locate all of the patterns correctly in all stages of the task was the variable of interest, and therefore lower scores are better.…”

“…Memory impairments are considered to be a core cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia, with patients exhibiting deficits across a wide range of memory tasks relative to healthy controls. While it has previously been suggested that memory ability is stably impaired in individuals with schizophrenia (Bora and Murray, 2013), recent longitudinal evidence indicates that one particular type of memory, visuospatial associative memory, is preserved in individuals with first-episode psychosis, with deterioration occurring only as the illness progresses (Haring et al ., 2017; Wannan et al ., 2018). It is, therefore, possible that deficits in visuospatial associative memory observed in chronic patients (Wood et al ., 2002; Stip et al ., 2005; Donohoe et al ., 2008) are related to stage-specific brain abnormalities in regions associated with this ability (Bartholomeusz et al ., 2017).…”

“…It is, therefore, possible that deficits in visuospatial associative memory observed in chronic patients (Wood et al ., 2002; Stip et al ., 2005; Donohoe et al ., 2008) are related to stage-specific brain abnormalities in regions associated with this ability (Bartholomeusz et al ., 2017). Given that deficits in visuospatial associative memory have previously been associated with both concurrent and prospective functional impairment in individuals with first-episode and established psychotic illness (Barnett et al ., 2005; Prouteau et al ., 2005; Wannan et al ., 2018), identifying the specific brain regions involved in this ability may be an important first step towards identifying potential underlying mechanisms or treatment targets for deficits in episodic memory that lead to impaired functioning in psychosis.…”

Machine Learning for Differential Diagnosis Between Clinical Conditions With Social Difficulty: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Early Psychosis, and Social Anxiety Disorder

“…A closer examination of this profile indicated that although all groups were comparable on overall visual learning performance, the neurodevelopmental cohort made more errors. This may reflect impaired processes specific to EP and ASD including impaired visual working memory (109,110) and slow processing speed (114,115). Attentional processes were the most salient features that discriminated the EP group from the combined ASD/SAD cohort and EP from the SAD groups.…”