Patients with schizophrenia exhibit normal memory for separate objects
or locations but are disproportionately impaired when the items must be
bound for later recognition in a working memory (WM) setting (Burglen et
al., 2004). This study aimed at further
evaluating the contribution of each WM component to the patients'
binding deficit, using selective articulatory, visuospatial, and executive
suppression tasks. In the object–location binding task used, a trial
comprised the successive presentation of three drawings of familiar
objects and of three spatial locations in a grid, either separately (i.e.,
objects alone or locations alone) or bound (i.e., object+location), and
required a recognition test following an 8-s delay. In the suppression
modalities, suppression was continuous from presentation to test. A total
of 22 patients with schizophrenia and 24 healthy controls participated.
The results confirmed the binding deficit in patients' performance in
the baseline modality where no suppression was required. They also showed
that patients were particularly disrupted when suppression was
visuospatial. This last finding extends the specific visuospatial
vulnerability in schizophrenia to the operations of binding.
(JINS, 2006, 12, 510–518.)Note: The data provided in this study have been partly matter
of a university thesis presented by Franck Burglen.