We hypothesized that neuropsychological disturbance in schizophrenia (SZ) may reflect faulty interactions of executive attention and episodic memory, emanating, in part, from reduced prefrontal cortex (PFC) gray matter volume. Participants with SZ (n = 84) and age-matched (n = 77) controls completed both the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and the Wechsler Memory Scale–Third Edition (WMS-III), used, respectively, as measures of executive attention and episodic memory. A subset of SZ (n = 27) and control (n = 17) groups also had available 3-T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of the PFC. For SZ, but not control groups, neuropsychological results indicated that executive attention interacted significantly with episodic memory, with failures of executive attention, as reflected by increased WCST perseverative errors, directly linked to poor performance on the WMS-III measure of delayed visual recall of action scenes. MRI results indicated reduced left PFC gray matter volume for SZ group, which in turn correlated significantly with their deficits in visual memory but not in executive attention. Results showed that 61% of the variance in neuropsychological performance in the SZ group was attributed to gray matter volume of left inferior prefrontal gyrus gray matter volume. PFC-mediated failure of executive attention-episodic memory interactions may represent an important mechanism in neuropsychological disturbance in SZ.

中文翻译：

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精神分裂症的错误执行注意力和记忆相互作用：前额叶灰质体积和神经心理障碍

我们假设精神分裂症 (SZ) 的神经心理障碍可能反映了执行注意力和情景记忆的错误相互作用，部分原因是前额叶皮层 (PFC) 灰质体积减少。SZ (n = 84) 和年龄匹配 (n = 77) 对照的参与者分别完成了威斯康星卡片分类测试 (WCST) 和韦克斯勒记忆量表第三版 (WMS-III)，分别用作执行力的测量注意力和情景记忆。SZ (n = 27) 和对照组 (n = 17) 的一个子集也进行了 PFC 的 3-T 磁共振成像 (MRI) 研究。对于 SZ 而非对照组，神经心理学结果表明，执行注意力与情景记忆显着相互作用，执行注意力失败，表现为 WCST 持续错误增加，与 WMS-III 对动作场景延迟视觉回忆的测量表现不佳直接相关。MRI 结果表明 SZ 组左侧 PFC 灰质体积减少，这反过来与他们的视觉记忆缺陷显着相关，但与执行注意力无关。结果表明，SZ 组神经心理表现的 61% 的差异归因于左下前额叶回灰质体积的灰质体积。PFC 介导的执行注意力-情景记忆相互作用的失败可能代表了 SZ 神经心理障碍的重要机制。这反过来与他们的视觉记忆缺陷显着相关，但与执行注意力的缺陷无关。结果表明，SZ 组神经心理表现的 61% 的差异归因于左下前额叶回灰质体积的灰质体积。PFC 介导的执行注意力-情景记忆相互作用的失败可能代表了 SZ 神经心理障碍的重要机制。这反过来与他们的视觉记忆缺陷显着相关，但与执行注意力的缺陷无关。结果表明，SZ 组神经心理表现的 61% 的差异归因于左下前额叶回灰质体积的灰质体积。PFC 介导的执行注意力-情景记忆相互作用的失败可能代表了 SZ 神经心理障碍的重要机制。