Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Station 19, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Psychiatry Res. 2012 Dec 30;200(2-3):652-9. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2012.07.001. Epub 2012 Aug 24.
To understand the causes of schizophrenia, a search for stable markers (endophenotypes) is ongoing. In previous years, we have shown that the shine-through visual backward masking paradigm meets the most important characteristics of an endophenotype. Here, we tested masking performance differences between healthy students with low and high schizotypy scores as determined by the self-report O-Life questionnaire assessing schizotypy along three dimensions, i.e. positive schizotypy (unusual experiences), cognitive disorganisation, and negative schizotypy (introvertive anhedonia). Forty participants performed the shine-through backward masking task and a classical cognitive test, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST). We found that visual backward masking was impaired for students scoring high as compared to low on the cognitive disorganisation dimension, whereas the positive and negative schizotypy dimensions showed no link to masking performance. We also found group differences for students scoring high and low on the cognitive disorganisation factor for the WCST. These findings indicate that the shine-through paradigm is sensitive to differences in schizotypy which are closely linked with the pathological expression in schizophrenia.
为了了解精神分裂症的病因，目前正在寻找稳定的标志物（内表型）。在过去的几年中，我们已经表明，透过式视觉后向掩蔽范式符合内表型的最重要特征。在这里，我们测试了健康学生的掩蔽表现差异，这些学生的得分高低取决于自我报告的 O-Life 问卷，该问卷评估了三个维度的精神分裂症倾向，即阳性精神分裂症（异常体验）、认知紊乱和阴性精神分裂症（内向性快感缺失）。四十名参与者进行了透过式后向掩蔽任务和经典认知测试，威斯康星卡片分类任务（WCST）。我们发现，与认知紊乱维度得分较低的学生相比，得分较高的学生的视觉后向掩蔽受到损害，而阳性和阴性精神分裂症倾向维度与掩蔽表现没有联系。我们还发现，在 WCST 上，认知紊乱因子得分较高和较低的学生之间存在群体差异。这些发现表明，透过式范式对与精神分裂症的病理表现密切相关的精神分裂症倾向差异敏感。
