# Cognitive Neuroscience of Attention and Working Memory in Schizophrenia

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE · 2024 · $783,720

## Abstract

The goal of our research program is to identify specific, low-level “building blocks” of cognition that are
impaired in people with schizophrenia (PSZ), are linked with neurobiology, and can explain deficits in higher-
level cognitive function. Our prior research has led to the hyperfocusing hypothesis, which proposes that many
aspects of cognitive impairment in PSZ can be traced to overly narrow and intense focusing of processing
resources on a subset of available inputs, and an inability to distribute resources among multiple sources of
information. Hyperfocusing can explain reduced working memory capacity and impaired performance in a
variety of attention tasks, and measures of hyperfocusing are strongly correlated with measures of broad
cognitive function (e.g., IQ). We have also found that PSZ exhibit an aberrant working memory dynamics in
tasks that require storing a single location or orientation in working memory on each trial. As the current-trial
maintenance period increases, working memory representations in healthy control subjects (HCS) drift closer
and closer toward the location or orientation of the previous-trial target (attraction), whereas working memory
representations in PSZ drift farther and farther away (repulsion). Working with a computational neuroscientist,
we have identified two potential neural mechanisms that could explain these aberrant working memory
dynamics and may also explain our prior hyperfocusing results. One hypothesis is that short-term synaptic
plasticity mechanisms are impaired in PSZ. The other hypothesis is that neuronal adaptation mechanisms are
exaggerated in PSZ. The main goal of this project is to test these two hypotheses of microcircuit disfunction in
schizophrenia and determine whether and how they are related to hyperfocusing and broad cognitive function.
 In Aim 1, we will use sophisticated behavioral tasks that can determine whether the aberrant working
memory dynamics in PSZ are a result of impaired short-term synaptic plasticity or exaggerated neuronal
adaptation. In Aim 2, we will provide converging evidence from other experimental paradigms, including both
behavioral and neural measures. In Aim 3, we will determine whether the aberrant working memory dynamics
and hyperfocusing reflect a common underlying mechanism, distinct from executive control. Aim 3a will
address this statistically by obtaining multiple measures of working memory dynamics, hyperfocusing,
executive control, and broad cognitive function in a relatively large sample of PSZ and HCS. Aim 3b will use
neural network modeling to address the same issue by determining whether an alteration in a single
component of the neural microcircuitry (e.g., reduced short-term synaptic plasticity) leads to patterns of
aberrant behavior across models of different tasks that match the pattern of aberrant behavior exhibited by
PSZ in these tasks.
 The results of the research will have important implications for efforts to develop new treatments...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10879324
- **Project number:** 2R01MH065034-21
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE
- **Principal Investigator:** James M. Gold
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $783,720
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2001-09-27 → 2029-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10879324

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10879324, Cognitive Neuroscience of Attention and Working Memory in Schizophrenia (2R01MH065034-21). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10879324. Licensed CC0.

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