ELECTRODERMAL DYSFUNCTIONS AND SCHIZOPHRENIA

描述(改编自申请人摘要)：本申请 提出了一项围绕四个主要问题组织的研究计划 与临床、认知、功能和神经生理学 皮肤电活动和脉搏前抑制(PPI)的意义 惊恐眨眼反射。这四个问题涉及测试预测 源自精神分裂症的脆弱应激模型。 第一个(临床)问题是紧张性皮肤中的异常 活动度指数：症状出现前的“暂时性中间状态” 在易受伤害的个体中发作。第二个(认知)问题是 PPI在测试时可以索引自动和受控的认知过程 在研究人员的“注意到预脉冲”范例中。第三 (功能)问题涉及PPI是否反映感觉抑制 过程，而相性皮肤电反应反映的是感觉摄取。一个 第四个(神经生理学)问题涉及大脑结构是否 异常与皮电和PPI异常有关。 精神分裂症。 这四个问题将在随机抽取的大学生中进行测试， 那些被选为“高危”患者和精神分裂症门诊患者。

DESCRIPTION (adapted from applicant's abstract): The present application proposes a program of studies organized around four broad issues dealing with the clinical, cognitive, functional, and neurophysiological significance of electrodermal activity and prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the startle eyeblink reflex. The four issues involve testing predictions derived from a vulnerability stress model of schizophrenia. The first (clinical) issue is whether anomalies in tonic electrodermal activity index a "transient intermediate state" that precedes symptomatic episodes in vulnerable individuals. The second (cognitive) issue is whether PPI can index both automatic and controlled cognitive processes when tested in the investigator's "attention-to-prepulse" paradigm. The third (functional) issue concerns whether PPI reflects a sensory inhibition process, while phasic electrodermal responses reflect sensory intake. A fourth (neurophysiological) issue addresses whether brain structural abnormalities are related to electrodermal and PPI anomalies in schizophrenia. These four issues will be tested in randomly selected college students, those selected to be putatively "at-risk" and in schizophrenic outpatients.