Functional Brain Mapping in Schizophrenia

描述（由申请人提供）：感觉处理缺陷构成精神分裂症的中心特征。在视觉系统中，这些缺陷通常使用心理物理和行为测量进行研究。许多这些研究的结果表明，精神分裂症患者相对于健康对照受试者，对视觉后掩蔽（VBM），运动感知受损和眼动追踪缺陷的易感性增加。本申请的主要目的是将脑活动的新的血液动力学测量与所呈现的皮质表面的三维图像并行应用，以系统地映射精神分裂症中的感觉处理区域。我们的目标是使用这些地图来可视化大脑皮层活动的精确位置，以响应给予一个受试者的多种类型的视觉刺激。功能定义的视觉处理领域是一个重要的和必要的第一步，以获得更完整的理解精神分裂症视觉通路功能障碍的神经生理和解剖基础。拟议的研究的第二个目的是获得有关功能障碍的magnocellular（背侧）的视觉处理流在精神分裂症的初步信息。背流功能障碍已被充分记录在精神分裂症和越来越多的证据表明，这些赤字是由于低水平的大细胞功能障碍。本申请的最后一项研究将使用功能性MRI（fMRI）评估精神分裂症患者的大细胞和小细胞功能。理解视觉通路的完整性对于理解精神分裂症的高水平视觉功能障碍至关重要。精神分裂症是一种严重影响公共卫生系统的毁灭性疾病。了解这种疾病背后的基本大脑机制是更全面了解这种疾病的重要和必要的一步，并可能导致改善治疗策略。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Sensory processing deficits constitute a central feature of schizophrenia. In the visual system, these deficits have typically been investigated using psychophysical and behavioral measures. The findings from many of these studies converge to show that schizophrenia patients, relative to healthy control subjects, have increased susceptibility to visual backward masking (VBM), impaired motion perception and eye tracking deficits. The primary aim of the current application is to apply novel hemodynamic measures of brain activity in parallel with three-dimensional images of the rendered cortical surface to systematically map sensory processing areas in schizophrenia. Our aim is to use these maps to visualize the precise location of cortical activity in response to many types of visual stimuli given to one subject. Functionally defining visual processing areas is an important and necessary first step towards gaining a more complete understanding of the neurophysiological and anatomical bases of visual pathway dysfunction in schizophrenia. A secondary aim of the proposed study is to acquire preliminary information regarding dysfunction within the magnocellular (dorsal) visual processing stream in schizophrenia. Dorsal stream dysfunction has been well documented in schizophrenia and increasing evidence suggests that these deficits are due to low-level magnocellular dysfunction. The final study in this application will evaluate magnocellular and parvocellular function in schizophrenia using functional MRI (fMRI). Understanding the integrity of the visual pathways is crucial to understanding high-level visual dysfunction in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a devastating disease that significantly impacts the public health system. Understanding the basic brain mechanisms that underlie this disorder is an important and necessary step towards gaining a more complete understanding of the disease and may lead to improved treatment strategies.