Prepulse Inhibition of Acoustic Startle and Cognitive Functioning in Subjects with Schizophrenia

在精神分裂症患者中，认知缺陷和惊吓眨眼反射的前脉冲抑制（PPI）缺陷（PPI被认为反映了信息处理的早期阶段）都很普遍。本研究的目的是检查是否认知功能和PPI相关的精神分裂症样本。50例符合DSM-IV精神分裂症诊断标准的患者和50例健康对照者被纳入本研究。认知功能采用剑桥神经心理学自动成套测验（CANTAB）进行评估。在受试者中评估对声惊吓反应的抑制。脉冲单独刺激是116分贝的音调和前脉冲刺激是85分贝的音调提出30，60，和120毫秒前的惊吓刺激。精神分裂症患者在CANTAB内-外-维集合移位任务中的总体错误率（p=0.045）高于正常对照组。精神分裂症患者在CANTAB空间工作记忆任务中的策略得分倾向于较低（p=0.069）。在其他认知任务中，患者和对照组之间没有显着差异。这些结果表明，精神分裂症患者有影响认知领域，如工作记忆和视觉记忆的缺陷。方差分析显示患者和对照组之间的PPI无显著差异。PPI结果的阴性结果不能提供关于精神分裂症患者认知功能障碍是否与PPI损害有关的结论。

Both cognitive deficits and deficient prepulse inhibition(PPI) of the startle eyeblink reflex which is thought to reflect an early stage of information processing have found to be prevalent in schizophrenia. The purpose of this study was to examine whether cognitive functions and PPI correlate in a schizophrenia sample. Fifty patients who met DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia and 50 healthy controls were included in this study. Cognitive functions were assessed using tests from the Cambridge Neuropyschological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB). Inhibition of the acoustic startle response was assessed in the subjects. The pulse-alone stimulus was a 116-dB tone and the prepulse stimuli were 85-dB tone presented 30, 60, and 120 ms prior to the startle stimulus. Patients with schizophrenia committed more errors overall (p=0.045) on the CANTAB Intara-Extra-Dimensional Set Shifting task than the normal controls. Patients with schizophrenia had a tendency towards lower strategy scores (p=0.069) on the CANTAB Spatial Working Memory task. There were no significant differences between patients and controls in other cognitive tasks. These results suggest that patients with schizophrenia have deficits affecting cognitive domains such as working memory and visual memory. An ANOVA revealed no significant difference in PPI between patients and controls. Negative findings of this PPI result can provide no conclusion regarding whether cognitive dysfunctionsare related to the PPI impairment in schizophrenia.