Peripersonal Space Representation as a Basis for Social Deficits in Autism and Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders

 描述（由申请人提供）：拟议项目的目的是比较和对比两个临床组：自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）和精神分裂症（SZ）成人的多感官表征的近个人空间（PPS）。NIMH强调了跨诊断类别调查的重要性，并确定了临床组之间共享和不同的症状的神经基质。该项目将遵循这一指令，并通过关注基本的感觉过程来扩展它，这些过程是更复杂的行为表型的基础，并且对神经基础有更全面的了解。该项目将评估这两个群体中PPS表征的大小和梯度，在假设的框架内，这两个群体中表现出的共同社会缺陷可能来自PPS多感官表征的不同缺陷。患有ASD的个体可能表现出较小的PPS表示和PPS与个人外空间（EPS）之间的陡峭梯度，反映了近端注意力集中，导致难以进行相互的社交互动。相比之下，SZ患者的PPS代表性扩大，PPS和EPS之间的梯度变浅，反映了远端或外部焦点，导致区分所有权的问题。这两个异常的陈述预计与在每个组中观察到的特定的社会赤字。我们还将探讨这些表示的延展性后，一段时间的配对视觉-触觉刺激，这已被证明改变PPS表示成人。虽然该探索性目的不是为了评估操纵PPS表征作为一种治疗，因此不构成干预研究，但我们将评估每组中PPS表征变化与社会症状之间的关系，作为确定ASD和SZ中这些领域之间是否存在联系的初步步骤。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objective of the proposed project is to compare and contrast multisensory representation of peripersonal space (PPS) in two clinical groups: adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia (SZ). The NIMH has stressed the importance of investigations that cross diagnostic categories and identify neural substrates of symptoms that are both shared and divergent across clinical groups. This project will follow this directive and extend it by focusing on basic sensory processes, which underlie more complex behavioral phenotypes and for which the neural bases are more completely understood. The project will assess the size and gradient of PPS representation in these two groups, within the hypothetical framework that shared social deficits exhibited in both groups may arise from divergent deficits in the multisensory representation of PPS. Individuals with ASD may show smaller representations of PPS and steeper gradients between PPS and extrapersonal space (EPS), reflecting a proximal focus of attention that leads to difficulty with reciprocal social interaction. In contrast, individuals with SZ are expected to show expanded PPS representation and shallower gradients between PPS and EPS, reflecting a distal or external focus that leads to problems distinguishing ownership. Both aberrant representations are predicted to relate to the specific social deficits observed in each group. We will also explor the malleability of these representations following a period of paired visual-tactile stimulation, which has been demonstrated to alter PPS representation in adults. While this exploratory aim is not designed to assess manipulating PPS representation as a treatment, and thus does not constitute an intervention study, we will assess the relationship between changes in PPS representation and social symptoms in each group as a preliminary step in determining whether there are links between these domains in ASD and SZ.