Sensorimotor Interactions in Childhood Schizophrenia

描述(申请人提供)：精神疾病患者的软神经学检查表明，明显的感觉运动异常在生命早期出现，并持续到成年。目前的提议将调查精神分裂症儿童和匹配对照儿童这些感觉运动异常的神经基础。利用脑磁图(MEG)技术，对手指随意运动和被动体感刺激时感觉运动加工的神经元动力学进行研究。脑磁图分析将利用一种波束形成方法，精确地成像归一化空间内的时空激活模式。与行为任务相结合，这种成像方案将允许评估运动和体感皮质之间的相互作用过程，以及相对孤立的每个区域的功能指数。这项研究的结果可以提供关于感觉运动异常背后的异常神经机制的关键数据。虽然这些缺陷是所有年龄段的精神分裂症患者的特征，但在儿童中获得这些知识将有助于识别疾病的早期神经生理标记物，这可能对更早和更准确的诊断特别重要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Soft neurological examinations in patients with psychotic illnesses have indicated salient sensorimotor abnormalities emerge early in life and are sustained through adulthood. The current proposal would investigate the neural basis of these sensorimotor aberrations in children with schizophrenia and matched controls. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), the neuronal dynamics of sensorimotor processing will be probed during volitional finger movements and passive somatosensory stimulation. MEG analyses will utilize a beamforming approach that precisely images spatiotemporal activation patterns within a normalized space. In conjunction with the behavioral tasks, this imaging protocol will allow evaluation of interactive processes between motor and somatosensory cortices, as well as functional indices of each area in relative isolation. The results of this study could provide crucial data on the anomalous neural mechanisms underlying the sensorimotor abnormalities. Although these deficits are characteristic of schizophrenia patients at all ages, acquiring such knowledge in children will facilitate the identification of early neurophysiological markers of the illness, which could be especially important for earlier and more accurate diagnosis.