THE ROLE OF PREFRONTAL CORTEX IN THE COGNITIVE DYSFUNCTIONS OF SCHIZOPHRENIA

这个项目的目的是增进我们对角色的理解 多巴胺(DA)和前额叶皮质(PFC)的紊乱在 产生在精神分裂症中观察到的认知缺陷。最基本的 该中心的科学项目将研究人的解剖学和生理学 内源性前额叶皮质回路及其被多巴胺和肾上腺素的调节 其他单胺。在这个项目中，我们将解决这些角色 制度在人类行为中发挥作用，并在产生认知缺陷方面发挥作用 在精神分裂症患者中观察到。这些研究的动机是一系列 并行分布式处理(PDP)模型，解决 PFC的计算功能及其受DA神经调节的调节 精神分裂症患者这一系统的紊乱。这些模型表明 行为抑制和记忆--这两种功能通常 被视为PFC的不同和分离的功能-可以简单地 是由PFC提供辅助的单个底层流程的两个功能： 选择任务所需信息的表示和维护 适当的响应(上下文信息)。这一假设使得 关于认知缺陷模式的具体预测应该是 在评估受试者呈现背景的能力的任务中被观察到 信息，在时间延迟期间维护该信息，并使用它 抑制相互竞争的反应。此外，它对以下方面进行了预测 赤字模式应该如何在病程中演变。 该项目的主要目标将是在 行为研究(认知和眼动任务，以及 神经心理评估)，并继续发展 它们所基于的计算模型，受新的 行为和生物数据。

The purpose of this project is to advance our understanding of the role that disturbances of dopamine (DA) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) play in producing the cognitive deficits observed in schizophrenia. The basic science projects in this Center will study the anatomy and physiology of intrinsic prefrontal cortical circuitry, and its modulation by DA and other monoamines. In this project, we will address the role that these systems play in human behavior, and in producing cognitive deficits observed in schizophrenia. The studies are motivated by a series of parallel distributed processing (PDP) models that address the computational function of PFC, its regulation by DA neuromodulation, and the disturbance of this system in schizophrenia. These models suggest that behavioral inhibition and memory - two functions that have often been treated as distinct, and dissociable functions of PFC - may simply be two features of a single underlying process subserved by PFC: the representation and maintenance of information needed to select task appropriate responses (context information). This hypothesis makes specific predictions about eh pattern of cognitive deficits that should be observed in tasks that assess subjects' ability to represent context information, maintain this information over temporal delays, and use it to inhibit competing responses. Furthermore, it makes predictions about how the pattern of deficits should evolve over the course of illness. The primary goal of this project will be to test these predictions in behavioral studies (cognitive and eye-movement tasks, and neuropsychological assessments), and to continue to develop the computational models upon which they are based, constrained by new behavioral and biological data.