FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATION OF AUDITION IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

许多研究已经注意到精神分裂症患者基本听觉的改变。虽然听觉解剖学和生理学方面的异常报道已经被描述，但关于听觉脑结构和功能的变化如何与行为发现相关联的确切情况知之甚少。此外，知觉现象与精神障碍的显著临床特征，如幻觉和思维障碍之间的关系也知之甚少。我们建议使用脑磁图(MEG)、听觉心理物理学和磁共振成像(MRI)来研究精神分裂症患者皮质水平上参与听觉处理的大脑过程。40名被诊断为精神分裂症的受试者和40名年龄和性别匹配的非精神病对照受试者将使用各种听觉功能的行为和生理指标进行研究。绝对阈值和差异阈值、知觉距离和声音偏侧化的心理声学测量将与听觉系统中它们的生理相关性的脑磁图测量进行比较。详细的临床评估将提供与功能和结构变化有关的状态和特征精神病症状经历的信息。高分辨率MRI扫描将为基础听觉解剖的详细形态分析提供数据，包括颞上回及其相关亚结构、赫氏回和颞平面。我们假设，听觉皮质中基本结构-功能关系的变化是基本知觉过程变化的基础。这些基本的知觉能力反过来可能会影响精神分裂症患者的高级认知大脑功能，因此对我们理解这种疾病至关重要。

Alterations in basic auditory perception in persons with schizophrenia have been noted in many studies. Although reports of abnormalities in auditory anatomy and physiology have been described, very little is known regarding precisely how the changes in auditory brain structure and function relate to the behavioral findings. In addition, the relationship between perceptual phenomena and salient clinical features of the disorder such as hallucinations and thought disorder is also poorly understood. We propose to study the brain processes involved in auditory processing at the cortical level in schizophrenia using magnetoencephalography (MEG), auditory psychophysics, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Forty subjects diagnosed with schizophrenia and 40 age-and sex-matched, non-psychiatric comparison subjects will be studied using a variety of behavioral and physiological metrics of auditory function. Psychoacoustic measures of absolute and difference thresholds, perceptual distance, and sound lateralization will be compared to MEG measurements of their physiological correlates in the auditory system. Detailed clinical evaluations will provide information relating state and trait psychotic symptom experiences with alterations in function and structure. High- resolution MRI scans will provide data for detailed morphological analyses of the underlying auditory anatomy, including the superior temporal gyrus and its relevant sub-structures, Heschl's gyrus and the planum temporale. We hypothesize that alterations in the fundamental structure-function relationships in the auditory cortex underlie alterations in basic perceptual processes. These fundamental perceptual abilities, in turn, may affect higher-order cognitive brain functions in schizophrenia, and are therefore critical to our understanding of the disorder.