Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Neuropsychologia. 2010 Dec;48(14):4169-72. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.10.024. Epub 2010 Oct 23.
Motor control strongly relies on neural processes that predict the sensory consequences of self-generated actions. Previous research has demonstrated deficits in such sensory-predictive processes in schizophrenic patients and these low-level deficits are thought to contribute to the emergence of delusions of control. Here, we examined the extent to which individual differences in sensory prediction are associated with a tendency towards delusional ideation in healthy participants. We used a force-matching task to quantify sensory-predictive processes, and administered questionnaires to assess schizotypy and delusion-like thinking. Individuals with higher levels of delusional ideation showed more accurate force matching suggesting that such thinking is associated with a reduced tendency to predict and attenuate the sensory consequences of self-generated actions. These results suggest that deficits in sensory prediction in schizophrenia are not simply consequences of the deluded state and are not related to neuroleptic medication. Rather they appear to be stable, trait-like characteristics of an individual, a finding that has important implications for our understanding of the neurocognitive basis of delusions.
运动控制强烈依赖于能够预测自身产生动作的感官后果的神经过程。先前的研究表明，精神分裂症患者在这种感官预测过程中存在缺陷，这些低级别的缺陷被认为导致了控制妄想的出现。在这里，我们研究了个体在感官预测方面的差异与健康参与者出现妄想观念倾向的程度之间的关系。我们使用力量匹配任务来量化感官预测过程，并通过问卷调查评估精神分裂症特质和妄想样思维。具有更高妄想观念倾向的个体表现出更准确的力量匹配，这表明这种思维与减少预测和减轻自我产生动作的感官后果的倾向有关。这些结果表明，精神分裂症中的感官预测缺陷不仅仅是妄想状态的结果，也与神经阻滞剂药物无关。相反，它们似乎是个体稳定的、特质性的特征，这一发现对我们理解妄想的神经认知基础具有重要意义。
