Attention and higher cortical functions in schizophrenia.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of attention in the cognitive abnormalities of schizophrenia. Controlling for attention by analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) had very little effect on the differences between 15 schizophrenic patients and 14 controls in regard to recently acquired, long-term episodic memory recall or remote semantic memory retrieval. Differences between the patients and controls on the percent perseverative response of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) were eliminated. These data suggest that deficits in attention may not underlie impaired recall of newly acquired information in schizophrenia or in the retrieval of information from remote, semantic memory, even under circumstances requiring more effortful processing. The data also suggest a contribution of attentional deficits to perseveration in schizophrenia.