The Neuronal Correlates of Theory of Mind in Schizophrenia

精神分裂症心理理论的神经元相关性

• 批准号: 7256676
• 负责人: Michal Assaf
• 金额: $ 8.2万
• 依托单位: HARTFORD HOSPITAL
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-05-01 至 2009-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7256676
• 关键词: Area; Attention; Behavior; Brain; Chronic Schizophrenia; Cognitive; Cognitive deficits; Computers; Development; Disease; Emotions; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Functional disorder; Fusiform gyrus; Future; Genetic; Goals; Heterogeneity; Human; Impairment; Individual; Intelligence; Life; MRI Scans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Measures; Medial; Mediating; Mind; Neurocognition; Neurocognitive; Neurons; Participant; Patients; Pattern; Performance; Persons; Play; Prefrontal Cortex; Probability; Process; Punishment; Rehabilitation therapy; Research; Research Personnel; Rewards; Risk; Scanning; Schizophrenia; Score; Severities; Short-Term Memory; Social Adjustment; Social Functioning; Social Interaction; Social isolation; Specificity; Subgroup; Symptoms; Testing; Thinking; Unemployment; base; design; desire; executive function; experience; hemodynamics; neuropathology; outcome forecast; remediation; response; social; social cognition; social skills; theories; tool

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Social function deficits are among the most disabling features of schizophrenia (SZ) and are a significant factor in the resulting social isolation and unemployment experienced by many patients. Since recent studies show that general neurocognitive impairments commonly seen in SZ do not fully explain patients' social deficiencies, it has been postulated that specific deficits in the 'Theory of Mind' (ToM) reasoning process underlie the neuropathology of social dysfunction in SZ. ToM reasoning, or 'mentalizing', refers to the crucial social process of attributing states of mind (including emotions, desires and goals) to other people to allow prediction and interpretation of others' behavior and consequent adjustment of one's own behavior. There is strong evidence that abnormal mentalizing functions underlie the social dysfunction in SZ. Although researchers have started to explore the neuronal networks that process implicit mentalizing in healthy individuals, the neuropathology that underlies this social cognitive deficit in SZ is not yet understood. Using functional MRI (fMRI), we will measure brain activation patterns in a defined brain network that subserves implicit mentalizing in 30 chronic SZ patients and 30 carefully matched healthy controls (HC) during a social interaction task, the Domino task. While undergoing the fMRI scans, participants will play an average of 12 Domino games against a human- and a computer-opponent. The former uniquely involves attributing a state of mind to another person (i.e. predicting their strategy), and processing emotions associated with reward and punishment, while being involved in a social two-player competitive game. In order to win, players occasionally have to choose to bluff their opponent, and thus risk being caught and punished (as in poker). When players play fairly they are rewarded if challenged by the opponent. We will analyze the critical intervals during the game when players are engaged in trying to predict their human-opponent's responses (vs. computer-opponent) to avoid punishments and gain rewards (i.e. implicit mentalizing process). We will estimate the differences between SZ brain activation patterns and those of HC related to this process. An fMRI probability prediction paradigm will evaluate the specificity of activation patterns during the domino paradigm to mentalization as opposed to probability prediction. Additionally, we will explore the relationship between patients' activation patterns during implicit mentalization and their social competence, symptoms heterogeneity and cognitive abilities in four domains: attention, working memory, intelligence, and executive functions. This study is designed to explore the neuropathology underlying social dysfunction in SZ and its association with patients' neurocognitive abilities, social competence and symptomatology. This in turn will be an essential step in identifying a subgroup of SZ patients that has the potential to benefit the most from cognitive and pharmacological rehabilitation remedies specifically targeting ToM social cognition and thus advancing future research (including genetic) of development of new treatment tools for SZ. This study is designed to explore the hypothesis that deficits in mentalizing processes (i.e. attributing states of mind, including emotions, desires and goals, to other people) underlie the neuropathology of social dysfunction in SZ. It will also assess the relationship between brain activations abnormalities associated with mentalizing and patients' neurocognitive abilities, social competence and symptomatology. The results of these analyses will help us in identifying a subgroup of SZ patients that has the potential to benefit the most from cognitive and pharmacological rehabilitation remedies specifically targeting ToM social cognition and thus pave the way for future research (including genetic) of development of new treatment tools for SZ.

描述(申请人提供)：社会功能缺陷是精神分裂症(SZ)最致残的特征之一，也是导致许多患者经历社会孤立和失业的一个重要因素。由于最近的研究表明，在深圳常见的一般神经认知障碍并不能完全解释患者的社交缺陷，因此有人推测，心理理论(Tom)推理过程中的特定缺陷是深圳社会功能障碍的神经病理基础。心理推理是指将心理状态(包括情绪、欲望和目标)归因于他人以预测和解释他人的行为，并由此调整自己的行为的关键社会过程。有强有力的证据表明，精神化功能异常是深圳社会功能障碍的根源。尽管研究人员已经开始探索在健康个体中处理内隐心智的神经网络，但深州这种社会认知缺陷背后的神经病理尚不清楚。使用功能磁共振成像(FMRI)，我们将测量一个定义的大脑网络中的大脑激活模式，该网络在社交互动任务Domino任务期间辅助30名慢性SZ患者和30名精心匹配的健康对照(HC)的内隐心智形成。在接受功能磁共振扫描的过程中，参与者将平均与人类和计算机对手玩12场Domino游戏。前者独特地涉及到将一种心理状态归因于另一个人(即预测他们的策略)，并处理与奖励和惩罚相关的情绪，同时参与一个社交的两人竞争游戏。为了获胜，玩家有时不得不选择虚张声势，从而冒着被抓住和惩罚的风险(就像在扑克中)。当玩家公平地比赛时，如果受到对手的挑战，他们会得到奖励。我们将分析游戏中的关键时段，当玩家试图预测他们的人类对手的反应时(对计算机对手)，以避免惩罚和获得奖励(即内隐的心智过程)。我们将评估与这一过程相关的SZ脑激活模式和HC脑激活模式的差异。FMRI概率预测范式将评估多米诺骨牌范式到心灵化的激活模式的特异性，而不是概率预测。此外，我们还将在注意、工作记忆、智力和执行功能四个领域探索患者内隐心智过程中的激活模式与他们的社会能力、症状异质性和认知能力的关系。本研究旨在探讨深圳地区社会功能障碍的神经病理基础及其与患者神经认知能力、社会能力和症状的关系。这反过来将是确定有可能从专门针对TOM社会认知的认知和药物康复疗法中受益最大的SZ患者亚群的关键一步，从而推动未来开发SZ新治疗工具的研究(包括遗传)。本研究旨在探索一种假设，即心智过程中的缺陷(即将包括情绪、欲望和目标在内的心理状态归因于他人)是深圳社会功能障碍的神经病理基础。它还将评估与精神化相关的大脑激活异常与患者的神经认知能力、社交能力和症状之间的关系。这些分析的结果将有助于我们确定一组SZ患者，他们有可能从专门针对TOM社会认知的认知和药物康复治疗中受益最大，从而为未来开发SZ新治疗工具的研究(包括遗传学)铺平道路。