Ross Anne Spencer, Hunter Sharon Kay, Groth Mark A, Ross Randal Glenn
Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado School of Medicine.
J Vis Exp. 2013 Dec 26(82):50065. doi: 10.3791/50065.
Attentional deficits are common in a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders including attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, autism, bipolar mood disorder, and schizophrenia. There has been increasing interest in the neurodevelopmental components of these attentional deficits; neurodevelopmental meaning that while the deficits become clinically prominent in childhood or adulthood, the deficits are the results of problems in brain development that begin in infancy or even prenatally. Despite this interest, there are few methods for assessing attention very early in infancy. This report focuses on one method, infant auditory P50 sensory gating. Attention has several components. One of the earliest components of attention, termed sensory gating, allows the brain to tune out repetitive, noninformative sensory information. Auditory P50 sensory gating refers to one task designed to measure sensory gating using changes in EEG. When identical auditory stimuli are presented 500 ms apart, the evoked response (change in the EEG associated with the processing of the click) to the second stimulus is generally reduced relative to the response to the first stimulus (i.e. the response is "gated"). When response to the second stimulus is not reduced, this is considered a poor sensory gating, is reflective of impaired cerebral inhibition, and is correlated with attentional deficits. Because the auditory P50 sensory gating task is passive, it is of potential utility in the study of young infants and may provide a window into the developmental time course of attentional deficits in a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders. The goal of this presentation is to describe the methodology for assessing infant auditory P50 sensory gating, a methodology adapted from those used in studies of adult populations.
注意力缺陷在多种神经精神疾病中很常见，包括注意力缺陷多动障碍、自闭症、双相情感障碍和精神分裂症。人们对这些注意力缺陷的神经发育成分越来越感兴趣；神经发育意味着虽然这些缺陷在儿童期或成年期临床上变得突出，但它们是始于婴儿期甚至产前的大脑发育问题的结果。尽管有这种兴趣，但在婴儿早期评估注意力的方法却很少。本报告重点介绍一种方法，即婴儿听觉P50感觉门控。注意力有几个组成部分。注意力最早的组成部分之一，称为感觉门控，它使大脑能够忽略重复的、无信息的感觉信息。听觉P50感觉门控是指一项旨在利用脑电图变化测量感觉门控的任务。当相同的听觉刺激相隔500毫秒呈现时，相对于对第一个刺激的反应，对第二个刺激的诱发反应（与点击处理相关的脑电图变化）通常会降低（即反应被“门控”）。当对第二个刺激的反应没有降低时，这被认为是感觉门控不良，反映了大脑抑制受损，并且与注意力缺陷相关。由于听觉P50感觉门控任务是被动的，它在幼儿研究中具有潜在的实用性，并且可能为各种神经精神疾病中注意力缺陷的发育时间进程提供一个窗口。本报告的目的是描述评估婴儿听觉P50感觉门控的方法，该方法改编自成人研究中使用的方法。
