Spatial Self Boundary, Interpersonal Distance and Social Impairments in Schizophrenia

项目摘要 精神分裂症是一种严重的、使人衰弱的精神障碍，其特征是基本感觉障碍 在整个疾病过程中自我和社会的脱节。拟议项目旨在阐明 通过关注身体自我的一个核心方面，自我-他人， 边界对明确定义的自我边界的内隐意识是适应性互动的先决条件， 外部世界。然而，在精神分裂症患者中，自我-他人边界的破坏使精神分裂症的治疗变得复杂。 将自己的行为与他人的行为区分开来的过程，从而破坏社会交往。 失去社会机会往往导致社会孤立，从而进一步侵蚀人际关系， 会加剧自我干扰，形成一个破坏性的循环。 尽管精神分裂症患者的自我困扰和社会障碍是慢性和普遍的，但常见的 自我-他人区分和社会障碍的潜在机制尚未得到广泛研究。 研究了一个主要的障碍是缺乏量化主观现象学的方法论工具 自我干扰。我们将利用新的行为方法，并利用技术进步， 沉浸式虚拟现实（VR）研究空间中自我-他人互动的两个核心方面：（1）内隐 自我周围的多感官行动空间，决定了一个人的自我-他人边界（peripersonal space）;（2） 人际舒适空间的社会建构（人际距离）。为了估计内隐自我- 边界，我们将在VR中实现一个基本的视觉-触觉整合范例， 非人类灵长类动物多感觉神经元的神经生理学研究。评估社交舒适空间 决定了人际距离，我们将在VR中使用停止距离范例。这种方法将允许 我们可以量化社会互动背景下的自我-他人边界，并将其与神经相关物联系起来。我们 将指定连接这些结构的机制，以确定更精确的治疗目标。 系统地研究近个人空间及其与人际距离调节的关系可能是一个新的研究方向。 第一步，确定自我干扰在破坏社会行为的组成部分中的作用。这个项目 将利用多感官整合过程的潜在机制来理解复杂的社会行为。 自我困扰是各种神经精神疾病的共同特征。事实上， 精神障碍可以被概念化为自我和自我之间的社会动态平衡被破坏的疾病。 社会世界。因此，这种方法可能广泛适用于多种神经精神疾病， 与自我障碍和社会障碍交叉，并将有助于实现NIMH研究的目标 域标准（RDoC）策略。

PROJECT SUMMARY Schizophrenia is a severe and debilitating psychotic disorder, characterized by disturbances of the basic sense of self and social disconnection throughout the course of illness. The proposed project aims to elucidate the impact of self-disturbances in social impairments by focusing on one core aspect of the bodily self, the self-other boundary. An implicit awareness of clearly defined self-boundary is a prerequisite for adaptive interactions with the external world. In individuals with schizophrenia, however, a disrupted self-other boundary complicates the process of distinguishing one’s own behaviors from those of others, thereby undermining social interactions. Loss of social opportunities often leads to social isolation, which further erodes interpersonal relationships and exacerbates self-disturbances, setting up a destructive cycle. Despite the chronicity and prevalence of self-disturbances and social impairments in schizophrenia, common mechanisms underlying disrupted self-other distinction and social impairments have not been extensively investigated. One major hurdle has been a lack of methodological tools to quantify the subjective phenomenology of self-disturbances. We will utilize novel behavioral methods and leverage the technological advances in immersive virtual reality (VR) to investigate two core aspects of self-other interactions in space: (1) the implicit multisensory action space around the self that determines one’s self-other boundary (peripersonal space); (2) the social construct of the interpersonal comfort space (interpersonal distance). To estimate the implicit self- boundary in our participants, we will implement a basic visuo-tactile integration paradigm in VR adapted from neurophysiological studies of multisensory neurons in nonhuman primates. To assess the social comfort space that determines interpersonal distance, we will use the stop-distance paradigm in VR. This approach will allow us to quantify the self-other boundary in the context of social interactions and link to their neural correlates. We will specify mechanisms that connect these constructs to identify more precise targets for treatment. Systematic examination of the peripersonal space and its relation to interpersonal distance regulation may be a first step towards identifying the role of self-disturbances in components of disrupted social behavior. This project will utilize mechanisms underlying multisensory integration processes to understand complex social behavior. Self‐disturbances are common features of a wide range of neuropsychiatric conditions. Indeed, all forms of psychiatric disorders may be conceptualized as maladies of disrupted social homeostasis between the self and the social world. Thus, this approach may be broadly applicable across multiple neuropsychiatric conditions that intersect with self-disorders and social impairments and will contribute towards the goals of the NIMH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) strategy.