Modelling cognition in schizophrenia (version 1)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Modelling cognition in schizophrenia (MCOGS)
IRAS ID
218169
Contact name
Rick Adams
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Z6364106/2016/11/79, UCL Data Protection Registration Reference No
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Schizophrenia is a disabling psychiatric disorder, present in 0.5-1% of the adult population. Some people diagnosed with the disorder can lead relatively normal lives, but a majority find that they can no longer work at the level they could before becoming unwell, and a substantial proportion are unable to manage any paid employment. The main cause of this profound change in functioning is not the ‘positive symptoms’ of the disorder (delusions and hallucinations), which are treatable with antipsychotic drugs in most cases, but the lasting loss of cognitive function associated with the disorder. This loss of cognitive function affects almost all of those diagnosed with schizophrenia, but it is poorly understood and there are currently no treatments available for it.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the neurobiological mechanisms and computational processes underlying key cognitive functions that are affected in schizophrenia. These include the gathering of information and updating of beliefs, and the use of memory and spatial cognition. We aim to understand how alterations in neurobiological mechanisms that we can measure using brain imaging methods impact on specific computational functions in the brain, and hence task performance. We will do this by using computational models of how subjects perform our tasks to help us understand more deeply why their performance is affected by the neurobiological alterations.
The expected benefits of this study are enhancements to our current knowledge about how cognitive functions are perturbed in schizophrenia. None of the patients in the study will benefit directly from the findings. In the long term, however, this study may help us find neurobiological or computational markers of specific cognitive problems in the disorder, and hence better tests for cognitive functions and targets for cognitive treatments. Such treatments could be either pharmacological or psychological, depending on the nature of the problem.
REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/0027
Date of REC Opinion
9 Feb 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion