FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATION OF AUDITION IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

精神分裂症患者的基本听觉感知的改变已经在许多研究中被注意到。 虽然已经描述了听觉解剖学和生理学异常的报告，但关于听觉脑结构和功能的变化与行为发现的关系，我们知之甚少。 此外，知觉现象与该疾病的显著临床特征（如幻觉和思维障碍）之间的关系也知之甚少。 我们建议使用脑磁图（MEG），听觉心理物理学和磁共振成像（MRI）研究精神分裂症患者在皮层水平上参与听觉加工的脑过程。 40名被诊断为精神分裂症的受试者和40名年龄和性别匹配的非精神病对照受试者将使用各种听觉功能的行为和生理指标进行研究。 心理声学措施的绝对和差异阈值，感知距离，和声音偏侧化将进行比较，MEG测量其生理相关的听觉系统。 详细的临床评估将提供与功能和结构改变有关的状态和特质精神病症状经历的信息。 高分辨率MRI扫描将为详细的听觉解剖学形态学分析提供数据，包括上级颞回及其相关的子结构、Heschl回和颞平面。 我们假设听觉皮层的基本结构-功能关系的改变是基本感知过程改变的基础。 这些基本的感知能力，反过来，可能会影响精神分裂症患者的高级认知脑功能，因此对我们理解这种疾病至关重要。

Alterations in basic auditory perception in persons with schizophrenia have been noted in many studies. Although reports of abnormalities in auditory anatomy and physiology have been described, very little is known regarding precisely how the changes in auditory brain structure and function relate to the behavioral findings. In addition, the relationship between perceptual phenomena and salient clinical features of the disorder such as hallucinations and thought disorder is also poorly understood. We propose to study the brain processes involved in auditory processing at the cortical level in schizophrenia using magnetoencephalography (MEG), auditory psychophysics, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Forty subjects diagnosed with schizophrenia and 40 age-and sex-matched, non-psychiatric comparison subjects will be studied using a variety of behavioral and physiological metrics of auditory function. Psychoacoustic measures of absolute and difference thresholds, perceptual distance, and sound lateralization will be compared to MEG measurements of their physiological correlates in the auditory system. Detailed clinical evaluations will provide information relating state and trait psychotic symptom experiences with alterations in function and structure. High- resolution MRI scans will provide data for detailed morphological analyses of the underlying auditory anatomy, including the superior temporal gyrus and its relevant sub-structures, Heschl's gyrus and the planum temporale. We hypothesize that alterations in the fundamental structure-function relationships in the auditory cortex underlie alterations in basic perceptual processes. These fundamental perceptual abilities, in turn, may affect higher-order cognitive brain functions in schizophrenia, and are therefore critical to our understanding of the disorder.