Visual-spatial processing and working-memory load as a function of negative and positive psychotic-like experiences

Introduction: Patients with schizophrenia show impairments in working-memory and visual-spatial processing, but little is known about the dynamic interplay between the two. To provide insight into this important question, we examined the effect of positive and negative symptom expressions in healthy...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cognitive neuropsychiatry 2016-09, Vol.21 (5), p.402-411
Main Authors: Abu-Akel, A., Reniers, R. L. E. P., Wood, S. J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Cohort Studies
Female
Handedness
Humans
Male
Memory
Memory, Short-Term - physiology
Neuropsychological Tests
Pessimism - psychology
Photic Stimulation - methods
Processing load
Psychosis
Psychotic Disorders - psychology
Random Allocation
Reaction Time - physiology
Schizophrenia
Spatial Processing - physiology
visual-spatial processing
working memory
Young Adult
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Summary:Introduction: Patients with schizophrenia show impairments in working-memory and visual-spatial processing, but little is known about the dynamic interplay between the two. To provide insight into this important question, we examined the effect of positive and negative symptom expressions in healthy adults on perceptual processing while concurrently performing a working-memory task that requires the allocations of various degrees of cognitive resources. Methods: The effect of positive and negative symptom expressions in healthy adults (N = 91) on perceptual processing was examined in a dual-task paradigm of visual-spatial working memory (VSWM) under three conditions of cognitive load: a baseline condition (with no concurrent working-memory demand), a low VSWM load condition, and a high VSWM load condition. Results: Participants overall performed more efficiently (i.e., faster) with increasing cognitive load. This facilitation in performance was unrelated to symptom expressions. However, participants with high-negative, low-positive symptom expressions were less accurate in the low VSWM condition compared to the baseline and the high VSWM load conditions. Conclusions: Attenuated, subclinical expressions of psychosis affect cognitive performance that is impaired in schizophrenia. The "resource limitations hypothesis" may explain the performance of the participants with high-negative symptom expressions. The dual-task of visual-spatial processing and working memory may be beneficial to assessing the cognitive phenotype of individuals with high risk for schizophrenia spectrum disorders.
ISSN:1354-6805
1464-0619
DOI:10.1080/13546805.2016.1206873