Hyperfocusing in Schizophrenia: Evidence From Interactions Between Working Memory and Eye Movements
Hyperfocusing in Schizophrenia: Evidence From Interactions Between Working Memory and Eye Movements
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DOI：
10.1037/abn0000003
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发表时间：
2014-11-01
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Gold, James M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Luck, Steven J.;McClenon, Clara;Gold, James M.
最近的研究表明，精神分裂症患者（PSZ）的加工资源比健康对照组（HCS）集中得更窄，但更强烈，这可能反映了局部皮层回路异常。这种超聚焦假设导致了一个违反直觉的预测，即虽然PSZ不能像HCS那样在工作记忆中存储那么多的信息，但PSZ中存在的工作记忆表征可能比HCS中的工作记忆表征更强烈。为了验证这一假设，我们使用了一个任务，在这个任务中，参与者在工作记忆中保持一种颜色的同时，对外围目标进行扫视眼球运动，并避免旁视非目标。先前的研究表明，当旁视非目标与工作记忆中的颜色相匹配时，它更容易分散注意力。在PSZ中，如果工作记忆表征更强烈，这种效应应该会增强。与这一预测相一致，我们发现，影响之间的匹配的干扰物的颜色和记忆的颜色是更大的PSZ比在HCS。我们还观察到PSZ在空间上超聚焦于注视点周围区域的证据。这些结果提供了进一步的证据，精神分裂症认知功能障碍的某些方面可能是由于更窄和更强烈的集中处理资源。
Recent research suggests that processing resources are focused more narrowly but more intensely in people with schizophrenia (PSZ) than in healthy control subjects (HCS), possibly reflecting local cortical circuit abnormalities. This hyperfocusing hypothesis leads to the counterintuitive prediction that, although PSZ cannot store as much information in working memory as HCS, the working memory representations that are present in PSZ may be more intense than those in HCS. To test this hypothesis, we used a task in which participants make a saccadic eye movement to a peripheral target and avoid a parafoveal nontarget while they are holding a color in working memory. Previous research with this task has shown that the parafoveal nontarget is more distracting when it matches the color being held in working memory. This effect should be enhanced in PSZ if their working memory representations are more intense. Consistent with this prediction, we found that the effect of a match between the distractor color and the memory color was larger in PSZ than in HCS. We also observed evidence that PSZ hyperfocused spatially on the region surrounding the fixation point. These results provide further evidence that some aspects of cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia may be a result of a narrower and more intense focusing of processing resources.