Niznikiewicz Margaret A, Shenton Martha E, Voglmaier Martina, Nestor Paul G, Dickey Chandlee C, Frumin Melissa, Seidman Larry J, Allen Christopher G, McCarley Robert W
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Am J Psychiatry. 2002 Oct;159(10):1767-74. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.159.10.1767.
This study examined whether early or late processes in semantic networks were abnormal in women with a diagnosis of schizotypal personality disorder. The N400 component of the EEG event-related potentials was used as a probe of semantic processes.
Word pairs were presented with short and long stimulus-onset asynchronies to investigate, respectively, early and late semantic processes in 16 women with schizotypal personality disorder and 15 normal female comparison subjects. Event-related potentials were recorded in response to the last words in a pair.
With the short stimulus-onset asynchrony, the N400 amplitude was less negative in the schizotypal personality disorder group than in the normal comparison group. No group differences were found with the long stimulus-onset asynchrony.
The finding of a less negative than normal N400 amplitude with the short stimulus-onset asynchrony in women with schizotypal personality disorder supports the hypothesis that persons with this disorder evince an overactivation of semantic networks. The absence of group differences with the long stimulus-onset asynchrony, which is primarily sensitive to processes involved in context integration, suggests that in this group of schizotypal personality disorder subjects, additional demands on working memory may be necessary to bring out the semantic dysfunction.
本研究探讨了被诊断为分裂型人格障碍的女性语义网络中的早期或晚期过程是否异常。脑电图事件相关电位的N400成分被用作语义过程的探测指标。
向16名患有分裂型人格障碍的女性和15名正常女性对照受试者呈现具有短和长刺激起始异步性的词对，分别以研究早期和晚期语义过程。记录对词对中最后一个词的事件相关电位。
在短刺激起始异步性条件下，分裂型人格障碍组的N400波幅负性比正常对照组小。在长刺激起始异步性条件下未发现组间差异。
分裂型人格障碍女性在短刺激起始异步性条件下N400波幅负性小于正常的这一发现支持了这样的假设，即患有这种障碍的人表现出语义网络的过度激活。在长刺激起始异步性条件下未发现组间差异，长刺激起始异步性主要对上下文整合过程敏感，这表明在这组分裂型人格障碍受试者中，可能需要对工作记忆提出额外要求才能揭示语义功能障碍。
