Transdiagnostic comparison of visual working memory capacity in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia

Abstract Background Impaired working memory is a core cognitive deficit in both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Its study might yield crucial insights into the underpinnings of both disorders on the cognitive and neurophysiological level. Visual working memory capacity is a particularly promising construct for such translational studies. However, it has not yet been investigated across the full spectrum of both disorders. The aim of our study was to compare the degree of reductions of visual working memory capacity in patients with bipolar disorder (PBD) and patients with schizophrenia (PSZ) using a paradigm well established in cognitive neuroscience. Methods 62 PBD, 64 PSZ, and 70 healthy controls (HC) completed a canonical visual change detection task. Participants had to encode the color of four circles and indicate after a short delay whether the color of one of the circles had changed or not. We estimated working memory capacity using Pashler’s K. Results Working memory capacity was significantly reduced in both PBD and PSZ compared to HC. We observed a small effect size (r = .202) for the difference between HC and PBD and a medium effect size (r = .370) for the difference between HC and PSZ. Working memory capacity in PSZ was also significantly reduced compared to PBD with a small effect size (r = .201). Thus, PBD showed an intermediate level of impairment. Conclusions These findings provide evidence for a gradient of reduced working memory capacity in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, with PSZ showing the strongest degree of impairment. This underscores the importance of disturbed information processing for both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Our results are compatible with the cognitive manifestation of a neurodevelopmental gradient affecting bipolar disorder to a lesser degree than schizophrenia. They also highlight the relevance of visual working memory capacity for the development of both behavior- and brain-based transdiagnostic biomarkers.

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Transdiagnostic Comparison of Visual Working Memory Capacity in Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia

10.21203/rs.3.rs-16602/v2 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Catherine Barnes-Scheufler ◽

Caroline Passow ◽

Lara Rösler ◽

Jutta Mayer ◽

Viola Oertel ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bipolar Disorder ◽

Working Memory ◽

Visual Working Memory ◽

Effect Size ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Memory Capacity ◽

Medium Effect ◽

Full Spectrum ◽

Small Effect Size ◽

The Difference

Abstract BackgroundImpaired working memory is a core cognitive deficit in both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Its study might yield crucial insights into the underpinnings of both disorders on the cognitive and neurophysiological level. Visual working memory capacity is a particularly promising construct for such translational studies. However, it has not yet been investigated across the full spectrum of both disorders. The aim of our study was to compare the degree of reductions of visual working memory capacity in patients with bipolar disorder (PBD) and patients with schizophrenia (PSZ) using a paradigm well established in cognitive neuroscience. Methods62 PBD, 64 PSZ, and 70 healthy controls (HC) completed a canonical visual change detection task. Participants had to encode the color of four circles and indicate after a short delay whether the color of one of the circles had changed or not. We estimated working memory capacity using Pashler’s K. ResultsWorking memory capacity was significantly reduced in both PBD and PSZ compared to HC. We observed a small effect size (r = .202) for the difference between HC and PBD and a medium effect size (r = .370) for the difference between HC and PSZ. Working memory capacity in PSZ was also significantly reduced compared to PBD with a small effect size (r = .201). Thus, PBD showed an intermediate level of impairment. ConclusionsThese findings provide evidence for a gradient of reduced working memory capacity in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, with PSZ showing the strongest degree of impairment. This underscores the importance of disturbed information processing for both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Our results are compatible with the cognitive manifestation of a neurodevelopmental gradient affecting bipolar disorder to a lesser degree than schizophrenia. They also highlight the relevance of visual working memory capacity for the development of both behavior- and brain-based transdiagnostic biomarkers.

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Transdiagnostic Comparison of Visual Working Memory Capacity in Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia

10.21203/rs.3.rs-16602/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Catherine Barnes-Scheufler ◽

Caroline Mirkes ◽

Lara Rösler ◽

Jutta Mayer ◽

Viola Oertel ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bipolar Disorder ◽

Working Memory ◽

Visual Working Memory ◽

Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

Cognitive Deficit ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Memory Capacity ◽

Full Spectrum ◽

Short Delay ◽

Visual Change Detection

Abstract Background Impaired working memory is a core cognitive deficit in both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Its study might yield crucial insights into the underpinnings of both disorders on the cognitive and neurophysiological level. Visual working memory capacity is a particularly promising construct for such translational studies. However, it has not yet been investigated across the full spectrum of both disorders. The aim of our study was to compare the degree of reductions of visual working memory capacity in patients with bipolar disorder (PBD) and patients with schizophrenia (PSZ) using a paradigm well established in cognitive neuroscience. Methods 62 PBD, 64 PSZ, and 70 healthy controls (HC) completed a canonical visual change detection task. Participants had to encode the color of four circles and indicate after a short delay whether the color of one of the circles had changed or not. We estimated working memory capacity using Pashler’s K. ResultsWorking memory capacity was significantly reduced in both PBD and PSZ compared to HC. Working memory capacity in PSZ was also significantly reduced compared to PBD. Thus, PBD showed an intermediate level of impairment. ConclusionsThese findings provide evidence for a gradient of reduced working memory capacity in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, with PSZ showing the strongest degree of impairment. This underscores the relevance of disturbed information processing for both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Our results are also compatible with the cognitive manifestation of a neurodevelopmental gradient affecting bipolar disorder to a lesser degree than schizophrenia.

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Visual working memory capacity: from psychophysics and neurobiology to individual differences

Trends in Cognitive Sciences ◽

10.1016/j.tics.2013.06.006 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 17 (8) ◽

pp. 391-400 ◽

Cited By ~ 424

Author(s):

Steven J. Luck ◽

Edward K. Vogel

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Visual Working Memory ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Memory Capacity

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Re-evaluating the relationships among filtering activity, unnecessary storage, and visual working memory capacity

Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience ◽

10.3758/s13415-015-0341-z ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 15 (3) ◽

pp. 589-597 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Stephen M. Emrich ◽

Michael A. Busseri

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Visual Working Memory ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Memory Capacity

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Greater Visual Working Memory Capacity for Visually Matched Stimuli When They Are Perceived as Meaningful

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_01693 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 33 (5) ◽

pp. 902-918 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Isabel E. Asp ◽

Viola S. Störmer ◽

Timothy F. Brady

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Visual Working Memory ◽

Visual Information ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Visual Complexity ◽

Memory Capacity ◽

Subjective Perception ◽

Neural Delay ◽

Meaningful Stimuli

Abstract Almost all models of visual working memory—the cognitive system that holds visual information in an active state—assume it has a fixed capacity: Some models propose a limit of three to four objects, where others propose there is a fixed pool of resources for each basic visual feature. Recent findings, however, suggest that memory performance is improved for real-world objects. What supports these increases in capacity? Here, we test whether the meaningfulness of a stimulus alone influences working memory capacity while controlling for visual complexity and directly assessing the active component of working memory using EEG. Participants remembered ambiguous stimuli that could either be perceived as a face or as meaningless shapes. Participants had higher performance and increased neural delay activity when the memory display consisted of more meaningful stimuli. Critically, by asking participants whether they perceived the stimuli as a face or not, we also show that these increases in visual working memory capacity and recruitment of additional neural resources are because of the subjective perception of the stimulus and thus cannot be driven by physical properties of the stimulus. Broadly, this suggests that the capacity for active storage in visual working memory is not fixed but that more meaningful stimuli recruit additional working memory resources, allowing them to be better remembered.

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