The Neural Basis of Delusions in Schizophrenia: Studies of Emotional Perception

描述(由申请人提供)：这是一份NIMH以患者为导向的研究职业发展奖(K-23)的申请书，题为“精神分裂症妄想的神经基础：情绪感知的研究”。候选人感兴趣的是精神分裂症精神症状的神经相关研究，特别关注妄想症。以往的研究表明，精神分裂症伴活动性妄想的患者在情绪知觉方面表现出异常。大脑区域的网络，包括杏仁核、海马体、内侧前额叶皮质和纹状体，在健康人的情绪感知过程中是活跃的。候选人将测试两个假设：1)妄想症的产生是因为人们越来越倾向于将情感重要性归因于情绪中立或模棱两可的信息，以及2)这种倾向是由参与情绪感知的大脑区域网络中的异常神经活动造成的。为了解决这种模式引起的研究问题，应聘者寻求接受认知和情感神经科学、功能神经成像技术、临床、心理和神经成像数据的统计分析以及临床研究的伦理指导方面的培训。建议的研究计划、教学课程以及来自导师、顾问和顾问的个别指导将有助于候选人发展为精神分裂症情绪知觉功能神经成像的独立临床研究人员。候选人建议使用信号检测分析来识别妄想性精神分裂症患者情绪感知的特定异常，以量化与妄想相关的偏向，即将情绪意义归因于中性或模糊的信息。将使用两种类型的功能磁共振成像(血氧水平依赖和动脉自旋标记)进行实验，以确定与妄想症患者情绪感知异常相关的大脑反应和静息神经活动的变化。因此，拟议的实验将使用认知神经科学和功能磁共振成像的互补技术来测试候选人的妄想症模型。人们希望，通过识别错觉的知觉和神经标记，这些研究将导致发现早期进行性精神病的方法的发展。这种早期检测方法将为设计旨在减轻精神分裂症和其他精神障碍严重程度或预防其发病的治疗干预措施提供重要工具。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is an application for an NIMH Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K-23) entitled "The Neural Basis of Delusions in Schizophrenia: Studies of Emotional Perception." The candidate's interest is in the study of the neural correlates of psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia, with a specific focus on delusions. Previous studies indicate that patients with schizophrenia with active delusions exhibit abnormalities in emotional perception. A network of brain regions, which includes the amygdala, hippocampus, medial prefrontal cortex, and striatum, is active during emotional perception in healthy individuals. The candidate will test two hypotheses: 1) delusions arise from an increased tendency to attribute emotional significance to emotionally neutral or ambiguous information, and 2) this tendency results from abnormal neural activity within the network of brain regions involved in emotional perception. To address the research questions arising from this model, the candidate seeks training in cognitive and affective neuroscience, functional neuroimaging techniques, the statistical analyses of clinical, psychological and neuroimaging data, and the ethical conduct of clinical research. The proposed research plan, didactic courses, and individual instruction from mentors, advisors and consultants will help the candidate develop into an independent clinical researcher in the functional neuroimaging of emotional perception in schizophrenia. The candidate proposes to identify the specific abnormality in emotional perception in delusional schizophrenia patients using signal detection analyses to quantify a delusion-associated bias towards attributing emotional significance to neutral or ambiguous information. Experiments using two types of functional magnetic resonance imaging (blood oxygenation level dependent and arterial spin labeling) will be conducted to identify the changes in brain responses and resting neural activity associated with emotional perception abnormalities in delusional patients. Thus, the proposed experiments will test the candidate's model of delusions using the complementary techniques of cognitive neuroscience and functional magnetic resonance imaging. It is hoped that, by identifying perceptual and neural markers of delusions, these studies will lead to the development of methods for the detection of early, evolving psychosis. Such early detection methods would provide critical tools for the design of treatment interventions aimed at reducing the severity or preventing the onset of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.