Hooker C, Park S
Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, 2029 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208-2710, USA.
Schizophr Res. 2000 Sep 29;45(1-2):83-92. doi: 10.1016/s0920-9964(99)00166-8.
Two experiments were conducted to investigate the ability of schizophrenia patients to maintain internal representation over time and space. It has been hypothesized that the ability to guide behavior by internal representation, mediated by the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), is impaired in schizophrenia [e.g. Goldman-Rakic, P.S., 1996. The functional parcellation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the heterogeneous facets of schizophrenia. In: Matthysse, S., Levy, D.L. (Eds.), Psychopathology: Evolution of a New Science. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge]. In Experiment 1, subjects observed a target, which traveled behind an opaque wall during a part of its trajectory. The task was to accurately assess the speed of the target by predicting when the target would re-emerge on the other side of the wall. In Experiment 2, subjects were asked to estimate the spatial trajectory of an established target path when it was partially occluded from view by another object. Schizophrenia patients were impaired in estimating the speed of a moving target and in estimating the spatial trajectory, without showing deficits in the control tasks. These results suggest that schizophrenia patients may not be able to accurately maintain the internal representation of a target over time and space. Such deficits may have deleterious consequences in goal-directed behavior.
进行了两项实验，以研究精神分裂症患者在时间和空间上维持内部表征的能力。据推测，由背外侧前额叶皮层（DLPFC）介导的通过内部表征指导行为的能力在精神分裂症中受损[例如，Goldman-Rakic, P.S., 1996. 背外侧前额叶皮层的功能分区与精神分裂症的异质性方面。载于：Matthysse, S., Levy, D.L.（编），《精神病理学：一门新科学的演变》。剑桥大学出版社，剑桥]。在实验1中，受试者观察一个目标，该目标在其轨迹的一部分时间内在一堵不透明的墙后面移动。任务是通过预测目标何时会在墙的另一侧重新出现来准确评估目标的速度。在实验2中，要求受试者估计当一个既定目标路径被另一个物体部分遮挡而看不见时的空间轨迹。精神分裂症患者在估计移动目标的速度和估计空间轨迹方面受损，而在对照任务中没有表现出缺陷。这些结果表明，精神分裂症患者可能无法在时间和空间上准确维持目标的内部表征。这种缺陷可能会对目标导向行为产生有害影响。
