PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

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DESCRIPTION (adapted from applicant's abstract): The overall aims of this proposed Research Career Award (K02) are to provide time for the PI to: (1) engage in an interdisciplinary, multi-site program of research on the psychophysiology of schizophrenia and (2) gain additional knowledge and skills in order to better integrate cognitive science, clinical science and neuroscience. More specifically, electrodermal activity and prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the startle eyeblink reflex will be measured in four sets of research projects at three different sites to test predictions derived from a vulnerability-stress model of schizophrenia. The first project investigates whether changes in electrodermal activity can help in the prediction of symptomatic exacerbation/relapse in schizophrenia patients. The second project examines whether schizophrenia PPI deficits are due to dysfunctions in automatic processes, controlled processes, or both. The third project tests whether PPI impairments demonstrated in both passive and attentionally active paradigms also occur in unaffected siblings of schizophrenia patients. The fourth project explores whether abnormalities in brain structures are related to electrodermal and PPI anomalies in schizophrenia patients and schizotypal individuals. In addition to these four research projects, the K02 will permit the PI to receive formal and informal training in techniques and principles of clinical science and neuroscience.