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Effortful Cognitive Resource Allocation and Negative Symptom Severity in Chronic Schizophrenia

Effortful Cognitive Resource Allocation and Negative Symptom Severity in Chronic Schizophrenia Background: The relationship between negative symptoms, early visual informationprocessing deficits, and effortful processing resource allocation was investigated. Methods: Older patients with chronic schizophrenia (n 58) and healthy controls (n 71) participated. Pupillary responses were recorded during performance of the span of apprehension task (blocks of 3- and 10-letter arrays) as an index of resource allocation or mental effort during the task. Results: Patients and controls showed larger pupillary responses in higher relative to lower processing loads both during array processing and just prior to array onset (preparation). Both groups, therefore, invested more cognitive effort preparing for and then processing larger arrays. A subgroup of patients with abnormally small pupillary responses and impaired performance showed greater negative symptom severity relative to a subgroup of patients with normal pupillary responses. Smaller pupillary responses in the patients were also significantly correlated with greater negative symptom severity, independent of positive symptom severity. Patients with reduced effortful resource allocation, therefore, exhibited greater negative symptomatology. A subgroup of patients with normal pupillary responses still showed impaired detection accuracy relative to controls, suggesting that reduced cognitive effort or resource allocation problems cannot account for impairments in early visual information processing in this subgroup. Conclusions: The study illustrates important relationships between cognitive effort and performance that can impact conclusions about the nature of cognitive impairments and associations between negative symptoms and neurocognition in schizophrenia. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Schizophrenia Bulletin Oxford University Press

Effortful Cognitive Resource Allocation and Negative Symptom Severity in Chronic Schizophrenia

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References (74)

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Copyright
The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: [email protected].
ISSN
0586-7614
eISSN
1745-1701
DOI
10.1093/schbul/sbl040
pmid
16956985
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Background: The relationship between negative symptoms, early visual informationprocessing deficits, and effortful processing resource allocation was investigated. Methods: Older patients with chronic schizophrenia (n 58) and healthy controls (n 71) participated. Pupillary responses were recorded during performance of the span of apprehension task (blocks of 3- and 10-letter arrays) as an index of resource allocation or mental effort during the task. Results: Patients and controls showed larger pupillary responses in higher relative to lower processing loads both during array processing and just prior to array onset (preparation). Both groups, therefore, invested more cognitive effort preparing for and then processing larger arrays. A subgroup of patients with abnormally small pupillary responses and impaired performance showed greater negative symptom severity relative to a subgroup of patients with normal pupillary responses. Smaller pupillary responses in the patients were also significantly correlated with greater negative symptom severity, independent of positive symptom severity. Patients with reduced effortful resource allocation, therefore, exhibited greater negative symptomatology. A subgroup of patients with normal pupillary responses still showed impaired detection accuracy relative to controls, suggesting that reduced cognitive effort or resource allocation problems cannot account for impairments in early visual information processing in this subgroup. Conclusions: The study illustrates important relationships between cognitive effort and performance that can impact conclusions about the nature of cognitive impairments and associations between negative symptoms and neurocognition in schizophrenia.

Journal

Schizophrenia Bulletin – Oxford University Press

Published: Sep 6, 2006

Keywords: schizophrenia negative symptoms pupillary responses resource allocation information processing

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