Section of Geriatric Psychiatry, Department of General Psychiatry, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
Rehaklinik Zihlschlacht, Centre for Neurological Rehabilitation, Zihlschlacht, Switzerland.
J Neuropsychol. 2023 Mar;17(1):89-107. doi: 10.1111/jnp.12288. Epub 2022 Sep 5.
Previous studies of autobiographical memory (AM) in schizophrenia yielded a reduction of specificity, richness of details and conscious recollection, which indicate both, quantitative and qualitative AM changes. However, their associations with psychopathological symptoms and neuropsychological deficits were not resolved. Therefore, we sought to investigate AM with respect to psychopathology and neuropsychology in patients with chronic schizophrenia to rule out the influence of different courses of the disease. AM of four lifetime periods was examined in 75 patients and 50 healthy controls by using a semi-structured interview. The recalled episodes were rated for memory specificity. Subsequently, one single event of each period of life was rated for details and experiential aspects of reliving (originality, vividness/visual imagery, emotional re-experiencing and emotional valence). When contrasted with healthy controls, patients recalled a significantly reduced number of episodes and personal semantic facts; moreover, memory specificity of AM was significantly lower in patients than controls. While the richness of details calculated for single events showed only minor, non-significant group differences, vividness and emotional re-experiencing were significantly less pronounced in the patient group. Along with this, AM performance correlated significantly with negative symptoms including apathy as well as verbal memory and executive functions. Our results underline the significance of overgenerality as a key feature of AM in schizophrenia as well as a dissociation between intact number of details of single events and reduced vividness and emotional re-experiencing. The extent of negative symptoms including apathy and impairments of verbal memory/executive functions may explain AM deficits in chronic schizophrenia.
先前关于精神分裂症自传体记忆（AM）的研究表明，其特异性、细节丰富度和意识回忆均有所减少，这表明 AM 存在数量和质量的变化。然而，其与精神病理学症状和神经认知缺陷之间的关联尚未得到解决。因此，我们试图在慢性精神分裂症患者中研究 AM 与精神病理学和神经心理学的关系，以排除疾病不同病程的影响。我们使用半结构化访谈对 75 名患者和 50 名健康对照者进行了四个生命时期的 AM 检查。回忆的情节按记忆特异性进行评分。随后，对每个生命时期的单个事件进行详细程度和重现体验方面（新颖性、生动性/视觉意象、情感再体验和情感效价）的评分。与健康对照组相比，患者回忆的情节和个人语义事实数量明显减少；此外，患者的 AM 记忆特异性明显低于对照组。虽然计算单个事件的细节丰富度显示出较小的、无统计学意义的组间差异，但患者组的生动性和情感再体验明显较少。除此之外，AM 表现与阴性症状（包括冷漠）以及言语记忆和执行功能显著相关。我们的研究结果强调了过度概括作为精神分裂症 AM 的一个关键特征的重要性，以及单个事件的细节数量完整与生动性和情感再体验减少之间的分离。冷漠和言语记忆/执行功能损伤等阴性症状的严重程度可能解释了慢性精神分裂症中 AM 缺陷的原因。
