University of Maryland School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Baltimore, MD 21228, USA.
Schizophr Res. 2011 Sep;131(1-3):219-23. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2011.06.001. Epub 2011 Jun 23.
Previous research indicates that abnormal attention-emotion interactions are related to symptom presentation in individuals with schizophrenia. However, the individual components of attention responsible for this dysfunction are unclear. In the current study we examined the possibility that schizophrenia patients with higher levels of negative symptoms (HI-NEG: n=14) have greater difficulty disengaging attention from unpleasant stimuli than patients with low negative symptoms (LOW-NEG: n=18) or controls (CN: n=27). Participants completed an exogenous emotional cueing task that required them to focus on an initial emotional or neutral cue and subsequently shift attention to a separate location outside of foveal vision to detect a target stimulus (letter). Results indicated that HI-NEG patients had greater difficulty disengaging attention from unpleasant stimuli than CN or LOW-NEG patients; however, behavioral performance did not differ among the groups for pleasant stimuli. Higher self-reported trait negative affect was also associated with greater difficulty disengaging attention from unpleasant stimuli. Abnormalities in disengaging attention from unpleasant stimuli may thus play a critical role in the formation and maintenance of both negative symptoms and trait negative affect in individuals with schizophrenia.
先前的研究表明，异常的注意-情绪相互作用与精神分裂症个体的症状表现有关。然而，导致这种功能障碍的注意的各个组成部分尚不清楚。在当前的研究中，我们研究了这样一种可能性，即具有更高水平阴性症状的精神分裂症患者（HI-NEG：n=14）与具有低阴性症状的患者（LOW-NEG：n=18）或对照组（CN：n=27）相比，更难以将注意力从不愉快的刺激中转移出来。参与者完成了一项外源性情绪提示任务，要求他们专注于最初的情绪或中性提示，然后将注意力转移到注视点以外的单独位置，以检测目标刺激（字母）。结果表明，与 CN 或 LOW-NEG 患者相比，HI-NEG 患者更难以将注意力从不愉快的刺激中转移出来；然而，对于愉快的刺激，各组的行为表现没有差异。较高的自我报告特质负性情绪也与更难以将注意力从不愉快的刺激中转移出来有关。因此，从不愉快的刺激中转移注意力的异常可能在精神分裂症个体中阴性症状和特质负性情绪的形成和维持中起着关键作用。
