Memory-Prediction Errors and Their Consequences in Schizophrenia

Abstract

Cognitive deficits play a central role in the onset of schizophrenia. Cognitive impairment precedes the onset of psychosis in at least a subgroup of patients, and accounts for considerable dysfunction. Yet cognitive deficits as currently measured are not significantly related to hallucinations and delusions. Part of this counterintuitive absence of a relationship may be caused by the lack of an organizing principle of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia research. We review literature suggesting that a system of memory-based prediction is central to human perception, thought and action , and forward the notion that many of the symptoms of schizophrenia are a result of a failure of this system.

Basic Self-Disturbance in the Schizophrenia Spectrum: Taking Stock and Moving Forward

“…A number of neurocognitive models have yielded findings consistent with this view, including the memory prediction model of cortical function of Keefe et al [61,68,69], the salience dysregulation model based on dopamine system abnormalities [64,70,71], mismatch negativity reduction [72], latent inhibition [73,74,75] and the model of ketamine as a pharmacological model of psychosis of Corlett et al [76,77]. Nelson et al [59] argue that this line of neurocognitive research is congruent with central features of the IDM, including hyperreflexivity, disturbed ‘grip' or ‘hold' on the perceptual and conceptual field, and disturbances of intuitive social understanding (‘common sense').…”

Towards integrating phenomenology and neurocognition: Possible neurocognitive correlates of basic self-disturbance in schizophrenia

“…A major theme in this work is the failed suppression of attention to familiar or irrelevant information/stimuli in the environment, leading to aberrant salience of objects and associations [82,83] -or, to reverse the terminology, excessive attention to information that is highly familiar or irrelevant. A number of neurocognitive models and experimental paradigms have produced findings consistent with this view, including the memoryprediction model of cortical function [48,84,85], the salience dysregulation model based on dopamine system abnormalities [55,57,82], mismatch negativity reduction [86], latent inhibition [54,87,88], and Corlett's model of ketamine as a pharmacological model of psychosis [89,90]. Also, Hemsley [58,59,91] and Sass [9] drew on findings regarding malfunction in the hippocampus-based "comparator" system in schizophrenia, proposing that this dysfunction may result in an automatic, hyperreflexive awareness that disrupts the tacit/focal structure essential to normal experience of basic selfhood.…”

“…Keefe and colleagues [48,84,85] recently attempted to introduce an organising principle in studies of cognition in schizophrenia in the form of a "memoryprediction" model of cortical function, which has substantial affinities with the prediction errors models mentioned above, as well as with earlier models proposed by Hemsley [57,58,91] and Gray [55]. The "memoryprediction" model is based on the understanding that perceptual processes do not simply involve the reproduction of stimuli, but that they involve matching and integrating sensory input, which are often fragmented and partial, with "working models" of the world.…”

Failures in Learning-Dependent Predictive Perception as the Key Cognitive Vulnerability to Psychosis in Schizophrenia

“…The higher levels do not provide enough input to lower levels for solving the nature of stimuli, and the lower levels do not provide adequate perceptual details to enable a sufficient establishment of perceptual context (Kraus et al, 2009). Thus, simple information must be sent repeatedly to higher levels for more effortful interpretation.…”