Memory in health and in schizophrenia

Memory is an important capacity needed for survival in a changing environment, and its principles are shared across species. These principles have been studied since the inception of behavioral science, and more recently neuroscience has helped understand brain systems and mechanisms responsible for enabling aspects of memory. Here we outline the history of work on memory and its neural underpinning, and describe the major dimensions of memory processing that have been evaluated by cognitive neuroscience, focusing on episodic memory. We present evidence in healthy populations for sex differences—females outperforming in verbal and face memory, and age effects—slowed memory processes with age. We then describe deficits associated with schizophrenia. Impairment in schizophrenia is more severe in patients with negative symptoms—especially flat affect—who also show deficits in measures of social cognition. This evidence implicates medial temporal and frontal regions in schizophrenia.