Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Schizophrenia is a devastating psychiatric disorder affecting approximately 1% of the general population and usually leads to decreased occupational and social functioning, and a lifetime of distress. The early onset, chronic nature, and requirements for supportive healthcare for this illness lead to annual cost estimates in Canada in the range of $7 billion. Cognitive impairment is regarded as one of the greatest sources of disability in Schizophrenia and memory is a prime predictor of poor daily functioning. Importantly, however, different forms of memory may be differentially affected in Schizophrenia and relate to unique brain pathology. Our lab's research, among others', indicates that spatial memory is an important domain of memory impairment in Schizophrenia. Spatial memory is essential for navigating our environment and remembering where we encounter different life events and is supported by a brain structure called the hippocampus. Importantly, brain autopsy data indicate that certain subregions of the hippocampus (CA3/DG) are particularly affected in Schizophrenia, whereas others are relatively intact (CA1). When the former was damaged, rats were impaired in their ability to recall recently visited locations. This study extends this research to spatial memory in living persons with Schizophrenia. I will examine the performance of persons with Schizophrenia on computerized tasks that resemble the rat tasks and use brain scans to see how closely such deficits are linked to CA3/DG abnormalities. For comparison, I will also test temporal memory for the timing of events rather than their spatial location. This ability is related to another subregion (CA1) and is predicted to be intact in Schizophrenia. Understanding the extent to which such memory processes are differently affected and their neural underpinnings are important for improving methods aimed at early disease recognition and developing interventions to improve memory and functioning in Schizophrenia.