Hazlett Erin A, Romero Michelle J, Haznedar M Mehmet, New Antonia S, Goldstein Kim E, Newmark Randall E, Siever Larry J, Buchsbaum Monte S
Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10029, United States.
Schizophr Res. 2007 Jul;93(1-3):288-95. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2007.03.012. Epub 2007 May 2.
Patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders show deficient prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the startle eyeblink reflex which is thought to reflect an early stage of information processing called automatic sensorimotor gating. They also exhibit deficient attentional modulation of PPI and prepulse facilitation (PPF) of startle which is thought to reflect deficient early and later controlled attentional processing. This is the first study to assess attentional modulation of PPI and PPF in a 3-group schizophrenia-spectrum sample of age- and sex-matched unmedicated schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) and schizophrenia patients, and healthy controls. Participants performed a tone-length judgment task involving attended, ignored, and novel tone prepulses while the acoustic startle eyeblink reflex was measured. Healthy controls showed greater PPI and PPF during the attended prepulses compared with the ignored prepulses. In contrast, both the SPD and schizophrenia patient groups failed to show this pattern, indicating deficient early and later controlled attentional processing. These findings suggest abnormal attentional modulation of PPI and PPF may be a trait-like feature found in patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. Among the schizophrenia-spectrum sample, more deficient PPI during the attended prepulses was associated with greater symptom severity as measured by the total 18-item Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale score.
精神分裂症谱系障碍患者表现出惊跳眨眼反射的前脉冲抑制（PPI）缺陷，这被认为反映了一种称为自动感觉运动门控的信息处理早期阶段。他们还表现出对PPI的注意力调节缺陷以及惊跳的前脉冲易化（PPF）缺陷，这被认为反映了早期和后期控制性注意力处理的缺陷。这是第一项在年龄和性别匹配的未服药分裂型人格障碍（SPD）、精神分裂症患者以及健康对照组成的三组精神分裂症谱系样本中评估PPI和PPF的注意力调节的研究。参与者在进行音调长度判断任务时，该任务涉及被关注、被忽略以及新出现的音调前脉冲，同时测量听觉惊跳眨眼反射。与被忽略的前脉冲相比，健康对照组在被关注的前脉冲期间表现出更大的PPI和PPF。相比之下，SPD组和精神分裂症患者组均未表现出这种模式，表明早期和后期控制性注意力处理存在缺陷。这些发现表明，PPI和PPF的异常注意力调节可能是精神分裂症谱系障碍患者中发现的一种特质样特征。在精神分裂症谱系样本中，在被关注的前脉冲期间更明显的PPI缺陷与通过18项简明精神病评定量表总分测量的更严重症状相关。
