Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-tnzcf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-14T21:05:15.970Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Working memory dysfunction in schizophrenia patients with obsessive-compulsive symptoms: An fMRI study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2020

M. Bleich-Cohen,
T. Hendler,
R. Weizman,
S. Faragian,
A. Weizman and
M. Poyurovsky
M. Bleich-Cohen*
Affiliation:
Functional Brain Imaging Unit, Wohl Institute for Advanced Imaging, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, 6, Weizmann Street, 64239Tel-Aviv, Israel
T. Hendler
Affiliation:
Functional Brain Imaging Unit, Wohl Institute for Advanced Imaging, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, 6, Weizmann Street, 64239Tel-Aviv, IsraelPsychology Department, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, IsraelSackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel
R. Weizman
Affiliation:
Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, IsraelAmbulatory Division, Mental health Department, Ramat-Hen, Israel
S. Faragian
Affiliation:
Research Unit, Tirat Carmel Mental Health Center, Tirat Carmel, Haifa, Israel
A. Weizman
Affiliation:
Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, IsraelResearch Unit, Geha Psychiatric Hospital, Geha, IsraelFelsenstein Medical Research Center, Petah Tiqva, Israel
M. Poyurovsky
Affiliation:
Research Unit, Tirat Carmel Mental Health Center, Tirat Carmel, Haifa, IsraelRappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
*
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +972 3 6973953; fax: +972 3 6973080. E-mail address: maya44@gmail.com (M. Bleich-Cohen).
Get access

Abstract

Background:

A substantial proportion of schizophrenia patients also meets DSM-IV criteria for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Schizophrenia with OCD (“schizo-obsessive”) patients are characterized by distinct clinical characteristics, treatment response and prognosis. Whether schizo-obsessive patients exhibit a distinct pattern of brain activation is yet unknown. To address this question, the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study explicitly compared alterations in brain activation and functional connectivity (FC) underlying a working memory deficit in schizophrenia patients with and without OCD.

Methods:

fMRI was applied during the N-back working memory (WM) task in three groups: schizo-obsessive (n = 16), schizophrenia (n = 17) and matched healthy volunteers (n = 20). WM-related activation in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the right caudate nucleus, brain areas relevant to schizophrenia and OCD, and FC analysis were used for the evaluation.

Results:

The two schizophrenia groups with and without OCD exhibited a similar reduction in activation in the right DLPFC and right caudate, as well as decreased FC compared to the healthy controls. Notably, reduced regional brain activation was not related to severity of schizophrenic or OCD symptoms.

Conclusions:

Schizo-obsessive patients do not differ from their non-OCD schizophrenia counterparts in brain activation patterns during the N-back WM task. Cognitive paradigms taping alternative neural networks (e.g., orbitofrontal cortex) particularly relevant to OCD, are warranted in the search for potential distinctive brain activation patterns of the schizo-obsessive subgroup.

Keywords

N-backWorking memoryDLPFCSchizophreniaFMRI

Information

Type
Original article
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , March 2014, pp. 160 - 166
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Andreasen, NCScale for the assessment of negative symptoms (SANS). Iowa City: University of Iowa; 1983.Google Scholar
Andreasen, NCScale for the assessment of positive symptoms (SAPS). Iowa City: University of Iowa; 1984.Google Scholar
Barch, DM, Ceaser, ACognition in schizophrenia: core psychological and neural mechanisms. Trends Cogn Sci 2012;16(1):27–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Callicott, JHAn expanded role for functional neuroimaging in schizophrenia. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2003;13(2):256–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Callicott, JH, Bertolino, A, Mattay, VS, Langheim, FJ, Duyn, J, Coppola, Ret al.Physiological dysfunction of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia revisited. Cereb Cortex 2000;10(11):1078–1092.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chamberlain, SR, Blackwell, AD, Fineberg, NA, Robbins, TW, Sahakian, BJThe neuropsychology of obsessive compulsive disorder: the importance of failures in cognitive and behavioural inhibition as candidate endophenotypic markers. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2005;29(3):399–419.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Docherty, AR, Coleman, MJ, Tu, X, Deutsch, CK, Mendell, NR, Levy DL, Comparison of putative intermediate phenotypes in schizophrenia patients with and without obsessive-compulsive disorder: examining evidence for the schizo-obsessive subtype. Schizophr Res 2012.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
First, MB, Frances, AJ, Pincus, HA, Vettorello, N, Davis, WWDSM-IV in progress. Changes in substance-related, schizophrenic, and other primarily adult disorders. Hosp Community Psychiatry 1994;45(1):18–20.Google ScholarPubMed
Friston, KJ, Frith, CD, Liddle, PF, Frackowiak, RSFunctional connectivity: the principal-component analysis of large (PET) data sets. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 1993;13(1):5–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glahn, DC, Ragland, JD, Abramoff, A, Barrett, J, Laird, AR, Bearden, CEet al.Beyond hypofrontality: a quantitative meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies of working memory in schizophrenia. Hum Brain Mapp 2005;25(1):60–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman-Rakic, PSWorking memory dysfunction in schizophrenia. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 1994;6(4):348–357.Google Scholar
Goodman, WKPL, Rasmussen, SA, Mazure, C, Fleischmann, RL, Hill, CL, Heninger, GRet al.The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale. I. Development, use, and reliability. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1989;46(11):1006–1011.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Honey, GD, Sharma, T, Suckling, J, Giampietro, V, Soni, W, Williams, SCet al.The functional neuroanatomy of schizophrenic subsyndromes. Psychol Med 2003;33(6):1007–1018.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jaafar, N, Frasca, M, Rigalleau, F, Rachid, F, Gil, R, Olié, JPet al.Forgetting what you have checked: a link between working memory impairment and checking behaviors in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Eur Psychiatry 2013;2:87–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jansma, JM, Ramsey, NF, van der Wee, NJ, Kahn, RSWorking memory capacity in schizophrenia: a parametric fMRI study. Schizophr Res 682–32004 159–171.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leh, SE, Ptito, A, Chakravarty, MM, Strafella, APFronto-striatal connections in the human brain: a probabilistic diffusion tractography study. Neurosci Lett 2007;419(2):113–118.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lysaker, PH, Whitney, KAObsessive-compulsive symptoms in schizophrenia: prevalence, correlates and treatment. Expert Rev Neurother 2009;9(1):99–107.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meyer-Lindenberg, ANeuroimaging and the question of neurodegeneration in schizophrenia. Prog Neurobiol 2011;95(4):514–516.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nechmad, A, Ratzoni, G, Poyurovsky, M, Meged, S, Avidan, G, Fuchs, Cet al.Obsessive-compulsive disorder in adolescent schizophrenia patients. Am J Psychiatry 2003;160(5):1002–1004.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Owen, AMThe functional organization of working memory processes within human lateral frontal cortex: the contribution of functional neuroimaging. Eur J Neurosci 1997;9(7):1329–1339.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pallanti, S, Castellini, G, Chamberlain, SR, Quercioli, L, Zaccara, G, Fineberg, NACognitive event-related potentials differentiate schizophrenia with obsessive-compulsive disorder (schizo-OCD) from OCD and schizophrenia without OC symptoms. Psychiatry Res 2009;170(1):52–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poyurovsky, M, Zohar, J, Glick, I, Koran, LM, Weizman, R, Tandon, Ret al.Obsessive-compulsive symptoms in schizophrenia: implications for future psychiatric classifications. Compr Psychiatry 2012;53(5):480–483.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saxena, S, Rauch, SLFunctional neuroimaging and the neuroanatomy of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Psychiatr Clin North Am 2000;23(3):563–586.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wykes, T, Brammer, M, Mellers, J, Bray, P, Reeder, C, Williams, Cet al.Effects on the brain of a psychological treatment: cognitive remediation therapy: functional magnetic resonance imaging in schizophrenia. Br J Psychiatry 2002;181:144–152.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.