Scientists uncover schizophrenia memory differences

Schizophrenic people use different areas of their brain for short-term memory, scientists have discovered.

Researchers have been aware since the 1990s that working memory problems are a consistent symptom of schizophrenia.

The latest study from a team at Vanderbilt University says this may be related to differences in how the brains of people with schizophrenia process information.

They studied a group of schizophrenic patients and healthy individuals while they used a computer test that requires memory use.

Scans of brain activity were taken using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS).

“Both groups used their frontal cortex while remembering and forgetting. However, while healthy subjects groups used the right side of this brain area when asked to remember spatial locations, the schizophrenic patients used a wider network in both hemispheres,” said researcher Dr Sohee Park.

“This suggests that while healthy people recruit a specialised and focused network of brain areas for specific memory functions, schizophrenic patients seem to rely on a more diffuse and wider network to achieve the same goal.”

The study also revealed a fundamental difference in the way healthy people and schizophrenic patients made errors.

“When healthy people are correct, there is an increased activation of the right frontal cortex. When they forget, there is no such increase,” Dr Park explained.