Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy.
Riv Psichiatr. 2013 May-Jun;48(3):252-60. doi: 10.1708/1292.14293.
The aim of the present study was to examine the anterior (Experiment 1) and posterior (Experiment 2) attention systems in schizophrenic patients with predominantly negative or positive symptoms, in order to evidence possible differences in symptomatology.
The schizophrenic sample was divided into two subgroups: negative(n=13) versus positive symptoms (n=10). The anterior and posterior attention systems in schizophrenic patients were assessed through two experiments: a dual-task paradigm evaluating executive functions, in particular planning and coordination,and a Simon task evaluating automatic shifting of visual attention.
Our study showed specific attention deficits in the presence of negative symptoms. These findings suggest that negative schizophrenics have a deficit that affects functioning of both anterior and posterior attention systems, whereas positive schizophrenics showed a selective deficit only for the posterior attention system, with a pattern that is in the opposite direction compared to that of negative schizophrenics.
Our results demonstrate that specific symptom dimensions or patterns are associated with specific cognitive impairments. Notably, negative schizophrenics exhibited clear abnormalities, whereas positive schizophrenics performed very similarly to healthy controls.
本研究旨在探讨以阴性或阳性症状为主的精神分裂症患者的前注意（实验 1）和后注意（实验 2）系统，以证明症状学上可能存在差异。
将精神分裂症患者样本分为两组：阴性症状组（n=13）和阳性症状组（n=10）。通过两个实验评估精神分裂症患者的前注意和后注意系统：一个评估执行功能，特别是计划和协调的双重任务范式；一个评估视觉注意自动转移的 Simon 任务。
我们的研究表明，阴性症状患者存在特定的注意力缺陷。这些发现表明，阴性精神分裂症患者存在一种影响前注意和后注意系统功能的缺陷，而阳性精神分裂症患者仅在后注意系统表现出选择性缺陷，其模式与阴性精神分裂症患者的模式相反。
我们的结果表明，特定的症状维度或模式与特定的认知损伤有关。值得注意的是，阴性精神分裂症患者表现出明显的异常，而阳性精神分裂症患者的表现与健康对照组非常相似。
