Holmes Avram J, MacDonald Angus, Carter Cameron S, Barch Deanna M, Andrew Stenger V, Cohen Jonathan D
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Schizophr Res. 2005 Jul 15;76(2-3):199-206. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2005.01.021.
Patients with schizophrenia frequently demonstrate hypofrontality in tasks that require executive processing; however questions still remain as to whether prefrontal cortex dysfunctions are specific to schizophrenia, or a general feature of major psychopathology. Context processing is conceptualized as an executive function associated with attention and working memory processes. Impairment in the ability of patients with schizophrenia to represent and maintain context information has been previously reported in a number of studies. To examine the question of the specificity of a context processing deficit to schizophrenia, we used functional MRI and an expectancy AX continuous performance task designed to assess context processing in a group of healthy controls (n=9), depressed patient controls (n=10), and patients with schizophrenia (n=7). The behavioral performance was consistent with a context processing deficit in patients with schizophrenia, but not those with depression. The imaging data replicate previous results in showing abnormal activity in the right middle frontal gyrus (BA9) in schizophrenia patients related to context processing.
精神分裂症患者在需要执行处理的任务中经常表现出前额叶功能低下；然而，关于前额叶皮质功能障碍是否是精神分裂症所特有的，还是主要精神病理学的一个普遍特征，仍然存在疑问。情境处理被概念化为一种与注意力和工作记忆过程相关的执行功能。先前的多项研究报告了精神分裂症患者在表征和维持情境信息能力方面的损害。为了研究情境处理缺陷对精神分裂症的特异性问题，我们使用功能磁共振成像和一个预期AX连续执行任务，旨在评估一组健康对照者（n=9）、抑郁症患者对照者（n=10）和精神分裂症患者（n=7）的情境处理。行为表现与精神分裂症患者的情境处理缺陷一致，但与抑郁症患者不同。成像数据重复了先前的结果，显示精神分裂症患者与情境处理相关的右侧额中回（BA9）活动异常。
