Archival ReportExtinction Memory Is Impaired in Schizophrenia
Section snippets
Participants
Twenty-eight patients with DSM-IV–diagnosed schizophrenia and 18 control subjects, between 18 and 65 years old, were studied. Clinically stable, medicated patients with schizophrenia were recruited through the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Schizophrenia Clinical and Research Program (Table 1). Healthy control subjects were recruited via advertisement. The healthy control subjects did not have any psychiatric, neurologic, or severe medical disorders or history of substance abuse during
Characteristics of the Participants
There were no differences between the patients and control subjects in age, mean parental education, socioeconomic status, or in level of electrical stimulation chosen (Table 1). Mean verbal IQ was lower in the patients than in the control subjects [t(43) = 2.07, p = .04].
Baseline SCL and Fear Acquisition
The mean SCL at baseline was nonsignificantly higher in the control subjects than in the patients [control subjects: 3.55 ± .84 μS; patients: 1.97 ± .37 μS; t(29) = 1.93, p = .06].
Within-group analyses revealed that the
Summary of Findings
In this study, a substantial proportion (43%) of the patients with schizophrenia displayed minimal autonomic responsivity, consistent with previous findings (37). The patients who had intact autonomic responses (responders) demonstrated levels of fear acquisition and extinction learning that were comparable to the control subjects; however, these patients showed impairment and loss of context sensitivity in delayed recall of extinction. Moreover, the reduction in extinction recall manifested by
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