CONTEXT AND SEMANTIC WORKING MEMORY IN SCHIZOPHRENIA: A COMPUTATIONAL AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION

We present a computational model for contextual deficits that underlie thought disorder in Schizophrenia. Predictions were obtained using a neurocomputational model in which lexical-semantic information is maintained in an activation buffer that can bias the interpretation of ambiguous information. Deficits in the capacity to maintain information in the buffer result in deficit in context maintenance. The predictions are shown to match results from an experimental study on Schizophrenia patients and matched controls.