PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSIVITY AND BEHAVIOR IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

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This project investigates the roles of autonomic nervous system (ANS activity, attention, and information processing and their interrelationships in the pathology, etiology, and prognosis of psychiatric disorders and studies their underlying biological and psychological processes. ANS activity is assessed by peripheral measures such as skin conductance, heart rate, and skin temperature. Subjects are tested under conditions of rest, presentation of tones, and performance on various tasks, especially reaction time tests of attention. Biological mechanisms are investigated by correlating these variables with enzyme activity, neuropeptides, and levels of biogenic amines and their metabolites and with brain dysfunction as revealed by CT, MRI, and PET scans. Recent and current work: 1) In schizophrenic patients we found that the atypical neuroleptic clozapine markedly attenuates ANS activity compared to a typical neuroleptic and placebo. Clozapine did not improve reaction time but there was evidence that it increased the efficiency of information processing, and this was mediated by a reduction of hallucinations. 2) Several methods to study respiratory sinus arrhythmia, an index of parasympathetic (vagal, cholinergic) control of heart rate have been developed and compared. Different methods are highly correlated, reliable, and resistant to body movements. 3) Parental 'expressed Emotion', an index of criticism and/or overinvolvement, is related, especially in fathers, to high skin conductance activity in obsessive-compulsive children. 4) Adolescents with Childhood Schizophrenia are being tested on the same protocol used with children with various other diagnoses. So far they show excessive spontaneous ANS activity but low Responsivity to novel and meaningful stimuli similar to our previous findings in adult schizophrenics. 5) Subjects with closed head injuries and with focal brain lesions are being tested on the same protocols used with the schizophrenics in part to explore the neurobiology of schizophrenia and in part to study central determinants of ANS reactions.