Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (ZIP), University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH), Kiel, Germany.
Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany.
J Sleep Res. 2022 Dec;31(6):e13636. doi: 10.1111/jsr.13636. Epub 2022 Jun 9.
Sleep-dependent memory consolidation is disturbed in patients with schizophrenia, who furthermore show reductions in sleep spindles and probably also in delta power during sleep. The memory dysfunction in these patients is one of the strongest markers for worse long-term functional outcome. However, therapeutic interventions to normalise memory functions, e.g., with medication, still do not exist. Against this backdrop, we investigated to what extent a non-invasive approach enhancing sleep with real-time auditory stimulation in-phase with slow oscillations might affect overnight memory consolidation in patients with schizophrenia. To this end, we examined 18 patients with stably medicated schizophrenia in a double-blinded sham-controlled design. Memory performance was assessed by a verbal (word list) and a non-verbal (complex figure) declarative memory task. In comparison to a sham condition without auditory stimuli, we found that in patients with schizophrenia, auditory stimulation evokes an electrophysiological response similar to that in healthy participants leading to an increase in slow wave and temporally coupled sleep spindle activity during stimulation. Despite this finding, patients did not show any beneficial effect on the overnight change in memory performance by stimulation. Although the stimulation in our study did not improve the patient's memory, the electrophysiological response gives hope that auditory stimulation could enable us to provide better treatment for sleep-related detriments in these patients in the future.
睡眠依赖的记忆巩固在精神分裂症患者中受到干扰，此外，他们在睡眠期间还表现出睡眠纺锤波减少，可能还有δ波功率减少。这些患者的记忆功能障碍是长期功能预后较差的最强标志物之一。然而，目前还没有药物等治疗干预措施来使记忆功能正常化。有鉴于此，我们研究了在精神分裂症患者中，通过实时听觉刺激与慢波同步增强睡眠，在多大程度上可以影响夜间记忆巩固。为此，我们采用双盲 sham 对照设计，对 18 名稳定服药的精神分裂症患者进行了检查。通过言语（单词列表）和非言语（复杂图形）陈述性记忆任务来评估记忆表现。与没有听觉刺激的 sham 条件相比，我们发现与健康参与者相似，听觉刺激在精神分裂症患者中会引起类似的电生理反应，从而在刺激期间增加慢波和时间耦合的睡眠纺锤波活动。尽管有这一发现，但刺激并未使患者的记忆表现在夜间的变化中产生任何有益的影响。尽管我们的研究中的刺激并未改善患者的记忆，但电生理反应给人以希望，即听觉刺激将来可能使我们能够为这些患者的与睡眠相关的损害提供更好的治疗。
