Walter Henrik, Ciaramidaro Angela, Adenzato Mauro, Vasic Nenad, Ardito Rita Bianca, Erk Susanne, Bara Bruno G
Department of Psychiatry, Division of Medical Psychology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2009 Jun;4(2):166-76. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsn047. Epub 2009 Mar 14.
In this fMRI study, we investigated theory of mind (ToM) in patients with paranoid schizophrenia. We hypothesized that the network supporting the representation of intentions is dysfunctional in patients with schizophrenia dependent on the type of intention involved. We used a paradigm including a control condition (physical causation) and three intention conditions (private intention, prospective social intention and communicative intentions) differing in the degree of social interaction. In all four experimental conditions patients performed worse than controls regarding accuracy and reaction time. They showed significantly less activation in three regions typically activated in ToM tasks, i.e. paracingulate cortex and bilateral temporo-parietal junctions. However, this dysfunction was dependent on the type of intention represented, i.e. was present only for social but not for non-social intentions. Moreover, part of the reduced activation was related to the fact that there was no signal drop in these regions for the physical causality condition as usually found in controls. This may be due to the tendency of schizophrenic patients to attribute intentionality to physical objects. Our findings have implications for the study and understanding of ToM in schizophrenia but also in other disorders like autism.
在这项功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究中，我们调查了偏执型精神分裂症患者的心理理论（ToM）。我们假设，支持意图表征的神经网络在精神分裂症患者中存在功能障碍，具体取决于所涉及意图的类型。我们采用了一种范式，包括一个控制条件（物理因果关系）和三个意图条件（个人意图、预期社会意图和交流意图），这三个意图条件在社会互动程度上有所不同。在所有四种实验条件下，患者在准确性和反应时间方面的表现均不如对照组。他们在心理理论任务中通常被激活的三个区域，即扣带旁回和双侧颞顶联合区，表现出明显较少的激活。然而，这种功能障碍取决于所表征意图的类型，即仅在社会意图而非非社会意图中存在。此外，激活减少的部分原因是，在物理因果关系条件下，这些区域没有像对照组中通常出现的信号下降。这可能是由于精神分裂症患者倾向于将意向性归因于物理对象。我们的研究结果对精神分裂症以及自闭症等其他疾病中心理理论的研究和理解具有启示意义。
