The recent literature on the neuropsychology of schizophrenia has emphasized memory deficits as a key area of impairment. Abnormalities in the medial temporal lobe, a brain region crucial for long-term memory formation, have also consistently been reported. We conducted a comprehensive review of verbal declarative memory (VDM) in schizophrenia with the aim of systematically addressing the nature of this impairment. We conclude that verbal declarative memory is significantly impaired in schizophrenia and is largely accounted for by deficits in the encoding stage. Subtle impairments in increased rates of forgetting are present, but are mild compared with those in amnestic disorders. Impairment in other cognitive domains studied thus far (e.g., attention), medication effects, or fluctuations in symptoms do not completely account for the deficit. VDM is among the most impaired neurocognitive domains in schizophrenia (along with attention and executive functions). Milder encoding deficits are present in high-risk subjects and non-psychotic relatives of individuals with schizophrenia suggesting that components of the deficit are associated with a genetic vulnerability to the illness, and are independent of the frank psychotic illness. Furthermore, VDM is observed in individuals experiencing their first-psychotic episode and it remains fairly consistent over time. Preliminary imaging studies and other work suggest abnormalities in prefrontal-hippocampal processing networks. Future work should emphasize delineating specific information processing components contributing to the deficit. This would allow imaging studies to determine which brain regions contribute to specific information processing deficits in schizophrenia.

中文翻译：

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精神分裂症的言语声明性记忆功能障碍：从临床评估到遗传学和脑机制。

关于精神分裂症的神经心理学的最新文献强调记忆缺陷是损伤的关键区域。长期以来形成记忆的至关重要的大脑区域-颞颞叶异常也得到了报道。我们对精神分裂症的言语声明性记忆（VDM）进行了全面的综述，目的是系统地解决这种障碍的性质。我们得出的结论是，口语声明性记忆在精神分裂症中明显受损，并且很大程度上由编码阶段的缺陷引起。遗忘率的增加存在细微的损害，但与遗忘症相比，轻度损害。迄今为止研究的其他认知领域的障碍（例如注意力），药物作用或症状波动并不能完全解决这一缺陷。VDM是精神分裂症中最受损的神经认知域之一（以及注意力和执行功能）。精神分裂症患者的高风险受试者和非精神病患者的亲属中存在较弱的编码缺陷，这表明该缺陷的成分与该疾病的遗传易感性有关，并且与坦率的精神病无关。此外，在经历第一次精神病发作的个体中观察到VDM，并且随着时间的流逝，它仍然相当稳定。初步的影像学研究和其他工作表明前额海马加工网络异常。未来的工作应强调描述造成赤字的特定信息处理组件。