La mémoire de la source

Abstract

ObjectivesSource monitoring is characterized by the ability to recognize the origin of the information. Memory deficits of the source would be an important dimension in the understanding of the hallucinations in schizophrenia. The objective of the study is to compare the performance of the source memory of two resistant populations compared to healthy volunteers. Materials and methodsIncluded subjects were 20 schizophrenic patients with refractory hallucinations, 10 refractory depression and 20 healthy subjects were evaluated. All clinical subjects met criteria for resistant disease. Source memory deficits were measured using a computerized source memory task, consisting of two subtests “hear” and “say”. This task assesses the ability to recognize the source of information that can come from either the subject itself or from an external source. ResultsPerformances of the three groups were compared on the number of correct recognitions for each test and the number of errors, which are the following ones: inversions, false recognitions and omissions. The data appear to reflect cognitive deficits present in each psychiatric population compared with healthy volunteers. These deficits seem to be of different types depending on the population. Refractory hallucinating schizophrenic subjects attribute significantly more auto-generated information to an external source than subjects with refractory depression. Moreover, the errors produced by depressed subjects occur more in information processing capacity as encoding and memory storage deficits. ConclusionsSource memory deficits are present in both pathologies. They seem to play a different role depending on disorders presented and are suggested as a cognitive marker to consider.