ABSTRACT
In this chapter we review models of working memory and assess the utility of the construct to account for some of the core cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Working memory appears to be a viable construct which may account for some of the disparate, and often conflicting findings in the literature entailing attentional, executive and behavioural defects that epitomise patients with schizophrenia. Based upon data from primate studies and in vivo neuroimaging investigations it is reasoned that the neuroanatomical region required for this function may be the prefrontal cortex in particular as it recruits activity related to medical temporal and diencephalic centres, and further, that the mesocortical dopamine system may be especially related to its workings.
