Autobiographical Memory Organization in Schizophrenia

University Hospital, Strasbourg, France80 enrolled

Overview

The aim of the study is to investigate the temporal organization of autobiographical memory in patients with schizophrenia. Patients and control participants will be invited separately to participate in a 1hour walk in the city of Strasbourg and at the same time, to carry an automatic camera around their neck, which is called SenseCam®. Pictures obtained with SenseCam® will be later presented to the participants during the session of test. They will be asked to determine the chronological order of 12 pictures corresponding to 12 particular events of the tour. Then they will be asked to watch the complete sequence of photos from the tour and to determine the beginning and ending of the events that have occurred during the tour. According to the investigators hypotheses, patients should have difficulty to find out the correct chronological order of the photos and to determine the appropriate beginnings and endings of the events

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

Purpose

DIAGNOSTIC

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Schizophrenia

Interventions

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 YearsMax age: 55 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * for both patients and controls * male or female willing to participate and who have signed up the legal document * under the protection of health insurance for patients only * schizophrenia or schizo-affective disorder according to the DSM-IV-TR criteria * clinically stable for at least 2 months for controls only * no psychiatric history Exclusion criteria: * for both patients and controls * current severe or unstable somatic illness * neurological history (epilepsia, brain injury, brain surgery…) * current substance use disorder (DSM-IV-TR) * current major depressive disorder (DSM-IV-TR) * mental retardation (IQ \< 70) * pregnancy, breast feeding * current legal control for patients only * treatment comprising benzodiazepines * benzodiazepines intake during the last 3 weeks for controls only * psychotropic intake during the last 3 weeks

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Specificity of memories recovered by using the SenseCam camera during the trial

SenseCam®(corresponding to the name of the automatic camera that participants will be asked to carry around their neck during the city-tour)

Time frame: 1 month