Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, South Limburg Mental Health Research and Teaching Network, EURON, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2012 Apr;84(1):102-12. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.01.017. Epub 2012 Jan 30.
Semantic network abnormalities in patients with psychotic disorder were examined using associative prime-target relations with two stimulus asynchronies (SOAs; -250ms and -500ms) to assess the time course of automatic and more controlled processes of semantic priming. To investigate whether an aberrant semantic network system is part of the familial liability for psychosis, healthy siblings of patients with psychotic disorder were additionally examined. The N400 event-related brain potential (ERP) was used as a probe of semantic processing.
Twenty-two patients with psychotic disorder, twenty siblings of patients with psychotic disorder and twenty controls participated in a lexical decision task and ERPs were recorded to target words that were associatively, indirectly or not related to their preceding prime word.
Associative priming of the N400 amplitude was found across all participants and both SOAs, but no between-group differences were found for the N400 amplitude (both SOAs). The Group×Condition interaction of the indirect priming N400 latency of the three groups was just short of statistical significance (F2,59=2.7, p=.077). Patients showed an increased indirect priming effect of the N400 latency only at short SOA, with decreased latency of the indirectly related compared to the unrelated condition, while controls did not show an indirect priming N400 latency effect. No between-group differences in N400 latency of indirect priming were found at the long SOA. Only a trend towards a Group×Condition interaction of the indirect priming N400 latency between the sibling and the controls was found, but without a main effect of indirect priming in the sibling group.
These preliminary results support the assumption of a hyperactive semantic network in patients with psychotic disorder, which develops under automatic processes and decreases with more controlled processes, but does not represent clear trait familial liability.
通过使用两种刺激异步（-250ms 和-500ms）的联想启动目标关系，研究了精神病患者的语义网络异常，以评估自动和更受控的语义启动过程的时间进程。为了研究异常的语义网络系统是否是精神病家族易感性的一部分，还检查了精神病患者的健康兄弟姐妹。使用 N400 事件相关脑电位（ERP）作为语义处理的探针。
22 名精神病患者、22 名精神病患者的兄弟姐妹和 20 名对照者参加了词汇判断任务，记录了目标词的 ERP，这些目标词与前面的启动词具有联想、间接或不相关的关系。
在所有参与者和两种 SOA 中都发现了 N400 振幅的联想启动，但在 N400 振幅（两种 SOA）方面未发现组间差异。三组间接启动 N400 潜伏期的组间条件交互作用仅接近统计学意义（F2,59=2.7，p=.077）。患者仅在短 SOA 时表现出 N400 潜伏期的间接启动效应增加，与无关条件相比，间接相关的潜伏期降低，而对照组则未显示 N400 潜伏期的间接启动效应。在长 SOA 时，间接启动 N400 潜伏期在组间无差异。仅在兄弟姐妹和对照组之间发现间接启动 N400 潜伏期的组间条件交互作用呈趋势，但兄弟姐妹组中没有间接启动的主要作用。
这些初步结果支持了精神病患者存在过度活跃的语义网络的假设，该网络在自动过程下发展，并随着更受控的过程而减少，但并不代表明确的家族易感性特征。
