Episodic Memory Bias and the Symptoms of Schizophrenia

Abstract

Much of the research on episodic memory in schizophrenia spectrum disorders has focused on memory deficits and how they relate to clinical measures such as outcome. Memory bias refers to the modulatory influence that state or trait psychopathology may exert on memory performance for specific categories of stimuli, often emotional in nature. For example, subjects suffering from depression frequently have better memory for negative stimuli than for neutral or positive ones. This dimension of memory function has received only scant attention in schizophrenia research but could provide fresh new insights into the relation between symptoms and neurocognition. This paper reviews the studies that have explored memory biases in individuals with schizophrenia. With respect to positive symptoms, we examine studies that have explored the link between persecutory delusions and memory bias for threatening information and between psychosis and a memory bias toward external source memory. Although relatively few studies have examined negative symptoms, we also review preliminary evidence indicating that flat affect and anhedonia may lead to some specific emotional memory biases. Finally, we present recent findings from our group delineating the relation between emotional valence for faces and memory bias toward novelty and familiarity, both in schizophrenia patients and in healthy control subjects. A better understanding of the biasing effects of psychopathology on memory in schizophrenia (but also on other cognitive functions, such as attention, attribution, and so forth) may provide a stronger association between positive and negative symptoms and memory function. Memory measures sensitive to such biases may turn out to be stronger predictors of clinical and functional outcome.

Valence‐related impairments in the retrieval of specific autobiographical memories amongst patients with schizophrenia

“…However, it is of note that the possible effects of changes in state psychopathology on memory specificity are not confined to changes in state rumination. Other studies outside of the domain of memory specificity have reported an association between changes in mood, and the negative and positive symptom dimensions of schizophrenia, and changes in episodic memory performance amongst people with schizophrenia (Lepage, Sergerie, Pelletier, & Harvey, 2007). No study has yet examined this directly by inducing change in rumination or affect, or in measuring natural longitudinal changes in these variables in schizophrenia patients to examine whether this is associated with changes in specificity.…”

An Exploratory Randomized Controlled Trial of Personalized Lifestyle Advice and Tandem Skydives as a Means to Reduce Anhedonia

“…Furthermore, although activity scheduling is part of BA treatments and the PEPS intervention, these treatments lack a thorough and objective analysis of pleasurable experiences. This is important, as anhedonia is characterized by difficulties recalling pleasurable experiences (Lepage, Sergerie, Pelletier, & Harvey, 2007), and therefore, anhedonic individuals may not be able to recall all activities that they enjoy.…”

Neural correlates of recognition memory of social information in people with schizophrenia

“…[23][24][25] It is not clear, however, whether they can benefit or not from a memory boost for social information. It is possible that an altered memory of social information in patients with schizophrenia may be associated with abnormalities in different neural regions than those typically associated with emotional memory deficits (i.e., amygdala).…”