Absence of established sex differences in patients with schizophrenia on a two-dimensional object array task

Seth L. Shipman, Elizabeth K. Baker, Godfrey Pearlson, Robert S. Astur

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Sex differences are pervasive in schizophrenia, ranging from differences in the age of onset and symptoms of the illness to structural brain differences. Yet, there has been very little research on the interaction of these differences with established cognitive sex differences that exist in healthy populations. We tested 25 patients with schizophrenia and 17 healthy controls on a two-dimensional task of object location memory. It has been previously shown that healthy females outperform healthy males on this task, a result that was upheld in this experiment. However, the female advantage is completely absent in patients with schizophrenia. This finding has important implications for the interpretation of clinical and physiological sex differences present in schizophrenia.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)158-165
Number of pages8
JournalPsychiatry research
Volume166
Issue number2-3
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 30 2009
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Object location memory
  • Schizophrenia
  • Sex differences
  • Spatial abilities

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Psychiatry and Mental health
  • Biological Psychiatry

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