A Novel Spatial Working Memory And Attention Test On Paired Symbols Shows Developmental Deficits In Neuropsychiatric Patients

People with neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and majordepressive disorder often display deficits in spatial working memory and attention.Evaluating working memory and attention in schizophrenia and depression patients inChina is usually based on traditional tasks and the interviewer’s judgment. But thetraditional tasks usually take a lot of time and are affected by many uncontrollablefactors. We developed a novel Spatial Working Memory and Attention Test on PairedSymbols (SWAPS) inspired by the Chinese historical jiugongtu (nine spaced grid). Ittakes only several minutes to complete, comprising101trials for each subject. In thisstudy, we tested59schizophrenia patients,24depression patients and130healthyvolunteers in China. In a healthy control group with ages ranging from12to60,spatial working memory and attention reached a peak in the20-26age range and thendeclined with increasing age. Importantly, schizophrenia patients failed to display thisdevelopmental trend in the same age range and adults(both schizophrenia patients andmajor depressive disorder patients) had significant deficits compared to the controlgroup. Our data suggests that this novel and simple SWAPS test can be a useful toolfor studies of spatial working memory and attention in neuropsychiatric disorders.