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Working memory and abstract thinking in patients with schizophrenic spectrum disorders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

M. Popov  and
I. Pluzhnikov
M. Popov
Affiliation:
Department For The Study Of Endogenous Mental Disorders, FSBSI «Mental health research centre», Moscow, Russian Federation
I. Pluzhnikov*
Affiliation:
Department Of Adult Neuropsychology And Abnormal Psychology, Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis, Moscow, Russian Federation Department Of Youth Psychiatry, The Mental Health Research Center, Moscow, Russian Federation
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

According to a selective meta-analytical review, weakness of working memory is considered as one of the fundamental disorders in schizophrenia. Some researchers propose identifying this disorder as an endophenotypic marker of schizophrenia diathesis. Many researchers also emphasize violations of “abstract thinking”, that is, the ability of patients to operate with abstract concepts. Many scientists understand the violation of “abstract thinking” as the difficulty of patient in operating with the dominant signs of the concept. Based on these approaches, we assume a dark relationship between working memory and abstract thinking.

Objectives

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between working memory and abstract thinking defect in patients with schizophrenic spectrum disorders.

Methods

16 patients with schizophrenic spectrum disorders were studied. To study abstract thinking, the following neuropsychological and psychometric techniques were used: exclusion of objects, D-KEFS understanding of proverbs (latent concepts were recorded). The following techniques were used to study working memory: n-back; Wechsler Test, subtest Digit Repetition.

Results

As a result of preliminary research, the following data was obtained. We found significant differences between the number of irrelevant features (which corresponds to impaired abstract thinking) and the severity of impaired working memory (p = 0.035). The more the memory was impaired, the more the subjects demonstrated the impairment of abstract thinking.

Conclusions

Thus, our results justify our assumption. A relationship between working memory and abstract thinking is founded to be possible. Further studies of this issue requires a wider techniques battery as well as a larger sample.

Conflict of interest

The reported study was funded by RFBR, project number 20-013-00772

Keywords

schizophrénianeuropsychologyWorking memoryAbstract thinking
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 64 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2021 , pp. S522
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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