2017.12.10 Prof. Rosa Ayesa-Arriola

Centro de Investigación Biomedica En Red del Área de Salud Mental

Psychiatry Department

University Hospital Marques de Valdecillapeech Therapist

A lens to the language deficit in schizophrenia: Verbal memory and voxel based morphometry in first episode non-affective psychosis

Deficits in auditory-verbal memory have been reported by the vast majority of published research in schizophrenia and also detected in first episode psychosis (FEP), confirming they are already present at the early stages of the illness. However, the specific neurocognitive constructs underlying defective verbal memory and their neuroanatomical correlates remains poorly understood in patients of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. In this talk I will explore results from both the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) and structural MRI using voxel based morphometry taken from a large cohort of FEP patients and healthy controls. I will discuss how the RAVLT provides insight into language processing, specifically through distinct memory processes, including: a) acquisition/learning b) sensitivity to interference c) retrieval; d) retention or rate of forgetting; e) and retrieval efficiency. In combination with the RAVLT we have used patient and control brain morphometry to identify significant correlations between lateralized proactive and retroactive interference in the frontal lobe, retention with the right occipital cortex, and the role of grey matter reduction in the frontal and occipital cortical areas with retention and interference. Our findings suggest specific relationships between different neuroanatomical structures and discrete memory processes with these structures playing an important role in verbal memory deficits found in FEP.