ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Whereas deficits in executive functioning have been widely reported in schizophrenia and, somewhat less, in bipolar disorder, few studies have addressed this issue in people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Importantly, no studies to date have compared the ability to cope with interfering information in all three groups of patients. Impairment in executive control has been associated with reduced daily functioning. METHOD: The sample included 20 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, 19 with bipolar disorder, 20 with borderline personality disorder, and 19 demographically matched healthy volunteers. Participants were administered two different experimental tasks to assess the ability to exert control over interference arisen from semantic memory or from distracting perceptual information. RESULTS: The three groups of patients showed similar impairment in solving interference from semantic memory compared to controls. However, no psychiatric group showed impairment in controlling interference from distracting perceptual information relative to controls. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows, for the first time, that schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and borderline personality disorder entail a common impairment in exerting control over interference arisen from memory but intact control over perceptual interference. These findings reinforce the idea that similar cognitive functioning may underlie severe mental disorders sharing poor global functioning but with different patterns of symptomatology.
Subject(s)
Bipolar Disorder/physiopathology , Borderline Personality Disorder/physiopathology , Cognition Disorders/physiopathology , Executive Function/physiology , Schizophrenia/physiopathology , Adult , Attention/physiology , Bipolar Disorder/complications , Borderline Personality Disorder/complications , Cognition Disorders/etiology , Female , Humans , Male , Memory/physiology , Middle Aged , Psychomotor Performance/physiology , Schizophrenia/complications , Young AdultABSTRACT
Retrieving information from long-term memory can lead people to forget previously irrelevant related information. Some researchers have proposed that this retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) effect is mediated by inhibitory executive-control mechanisms recruited to overcome interference. We assessed whether inhibition in RIF depends on executive processes. The RIF effect observed in a standard retrieval-practice condition was compared to that observed in two different conditions in which participants had to perform two concurrent updating tasks that demanded executive attention. Whereas the usual RIF effect was observed when retrieval practice was performed singly, no evidence of forgetting was found in the dual-task conditions. Results strongly suggest that inhibition involved in RIF is the result of executive-control processes.
Subject(s)
Association Learning , Attention , Executive Function , Inhibition, Psychological , Mental Recall , Pattern Recognition, Visual , Retention, Psychology , Cues , Humans , Reaction Time , Serial Learning , Verbal LearningABSTRACT
La amplitud de la memoria operativa (AM) predice la ejecución en tareas de control ejecutivo y se ha relacionado, además, con la capacidad de inhibir información irrelevante. En este estudio investigamos el papel de la AM en dos tareas de control centrando nuestra atención en los aspectos inhibitorios de estas tareas. Participantes de alta y baja AM recordaban palabras objetivo a la vez que rechazaban otras irrelevantes (Experimento 1) y generaban números de forma aleatoria (Experimento 2). Los resultados muestran una clara relación entre la AM y la realización de las dos tareas ejecutivas. Además, el análisis de los errores de intrusión (Experimento 1) y de las respuestas estereotipadas (Experimento 2) indica que las personas de alta amplitud articulan más eficientemente los aspectos de supresión implicados en las tareas. Nuestros datos apoyan la relación entre la AM y los procesos de control ejecutivo a través de un mecanismo de naturaleza inhibitoria
Working Memory (WM) span predicts subjects performance in control executive tasks and, in addition, it has been related to the capacity to inhibit irrelevant information. In this paper we investigate the role of WM span in two executive tasks focusing our attention on inhibitory components of both tasks. High and low span participants recalled targets words rejecting irrelevant items at the same time (Experiment 1) and they generated random numbers (Experiment 2). Results showed a clear relation between WM span and performance in both tasks. In addition, analyses of intrusion errors (Experiment 1) and stereotyped responses (Experiment 2) indicated that high span individuals were able to efficiently use the inhibitory component implied in both tasks. The pattern of data provides support to the relation between WM span and control executive tasks through an inhibitory mechanism
Subject(s)
Male , Female , Adult , Humans , Memory , Inhibition, Psychological , Task Performance and Analysis , Mental Recall , Mental Processes , Word Association TestsABSTRACT
La amplitud de Memoria de Trabajo (MT) se ha relacionado con el control de la atención en situaciones de interferencia. Sin embargo, existe discusión sobre la naturaleza unitaria o múltiple de la inhibición. En este estudio exploramos la relación entre la amplitud de MT y la inhibición en la memoria semántica y episódica. En el Experimento 1, participantes de alta y baja amplitud juzgaron la relación entre palabras mientras suprimían dibujos relacionados semánticamente (inhibición semántica). En el Experimento 2 exploramos la inhibición episódica mediante una tarea de interferencia proactiva. Los participantes de baja amplitud fueron susceptibles a la interferencia tanto semántica como episódica, mientras que las personas de alta amplitud resistieron a la interferencia en ambas tareas. Nuestros datos apoyan la relación entre la amplitud de MT y la susceptibilidad a la interferencia a través de mecanismos de supresión en memoria semántica y episódica (AU)
Working Memory (WM) span has been related to the capacity of controlled attention in the face of interfering events. However, there are discussions about the nature (unitary or multiple) of inhibition. In this paper we explored the relation between WM span and inhibition in the semantic and episodic memory systems. In Experiment 1, high and low span participants judged the semantic relation of word pairs in the presence of irrelevant semantically related pictures (semantic inhibition). In Experiment 2, we explored the nature of episodic inhibition in a proactive interference task. Results indicated that low span participants were more susceptible to the presence of interfering events than high span individuals in both semantic and episodic tasks. This pattern of data provides support to the relation between WM span and susceptibility to interference and to the existence of suppression mechanisms in episodic and semantic memory (AU)
