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Impaired recognition of biological motion in schizophrenia
11. Psychology, Neuro-
141
thought to reflect the contribution of the amygdala to memory formation. We predicted SCZs would fail to show this enhanced memory effect. To date, the sample consists of 10 individuals with schizophrenia (SCZ) and 9 controls (CTL). Of these, 6 and 8, respectively, had MRIs adequate for analysis. ANOVAs performed on the anlygdala volumes indicated no significant differences across hemispheres or groups [Ctls - left: 1.56 (0.45) ccs, right: 1.62 (0.3l) ccs; SCZs left: 1.41 (0.I6)ccs, fight: 1.43 (0.30) ccs]. For the emotional memory test, analyses indicated that immediately after viewing the stimuli and after a 2-week delay, free recall for very unpleasant pictures was impaired in SCZs (F=7.909, df=3, p<.05; F=9.832; df=3, p<.05). No significant group differences were found for pictures rated highly arousing, or for overall recognition of the pictures. The lack of enhanced recall for unpleasant pictures suggests disrupted amygdala function, although it is currently unclear why highly arousing pictures did not also show this effect.
FRONTAL LOBE FUNCTIONING, PSYCHIATRIC SYMPTOMS, AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN OUTPATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA A. K e n n e d y , * A. E. Wood, J. H. Poole, S. Vinogradov
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA Despite advances in the treatment of schizophrenia, outpatients with schizophrenia still experience significant impoverishment in Quality of Life (QoL). Frontal lobe dysfunction has long been implicated in the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Prior research has found poor performance on neuropsychological tests sensitive to frontal lobe functioning to be associated with negative symptoms. Both frontal lobe deficits and negative symptoms have been shown to predict functional outcomes. The relative power of generalized neurocognitive deficits as compared to symptomatology to predict functional outcomes has been a topic of considerable discussion in the recent literature. This study examined the relative power of impairments on tests of frontal lobe functioning, as compared to negative symptoms, to predict QoL. To assess frontal lobe functioning, the Modified Card Sorting Test (MCST), FAS, Animal Naming, and the Motor Signs Inventory were administered to 110 relatively high functioning outpatients with schizophrenia. Symptoms were assessed with an extended version of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. The Quality of Life Scale was administered to assess adaptive functioning and QoL. Although the subjects only exhibited mild to moderate deficits in frontal lobe functioning and mild to moderate symptoms, their QoL was significantly impaired. A principal component analysis of all neurocognitive scores rendered a four factor solution--Motor Disinhibition, Executive Function, Response Initiation, and Motor Coordination--which predicted 70% of the variance in neurocognitive scores. In a correlational matrix, none of the frontal lobe factors were related to negative symptoms. Surprisingly, the Executive factor, comprised of scores from the MCST, significantly correlated, r = -.29, p < .01, with positive symptoms. In a stepwise multiple regression equation, the best predictors of QoL were negative symptoms and level of lifetime occupational achievement (R2 = .26, p < .05). In relatively high functioning outpatients with schizophrenia, deficits in frontal lobe functioning and negative symptoms do not appear to share a common causal pathway. Furthermore, in this group, symptomatology, specifically negative symptoms, may be a better predictor of QoL than impairments in frontal lobe function. Interventions which reduce negative symptoms are
essential to improving the QoL of relatively high fimctioning outpatients with schizophrenia.
IMPAIRED RECOGNITION OF BIOLOGICAL MOTION IN SCHIZOPHRENIA J. K i m , * M. L. Doop, R. Blake, S. Park
Paychology. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA Although deficits in motion perception has been suggested to be an important feature of schizophrenia, these results are based on a narrow range of motion stimuli and restricted types tasks, for example velocity discrimination performance with a limited range of targets (Chen et al., 2000). In nature, most of the moving stimuli are biological and the brain appears to have a specialized network for detecting biological motion. The superior temporal sulcus (STS) is involved in biological motion recognition (Grossman et al., 2000). STS is also implicated in discerning the direction of body, eye gaze and head orientation and is thought to be a part of a network that allows us to infer the intentions of others. In schizophrenia patients, superior temporal cortex volume is reduced (Shenton et al., 1992). Thus, past neuropsychological and anatomical studies point to the possibility that schizophrenic patients may have deficits in biological motion perception. We examined biological motion perception by presenting a series of point-light animations and asking participants to judge whether the target looked like human or not. Half the stimuli were from a real person in motion (e.g. dancing, jumping, walking etc) and the other half were scrambled versions of the biological motion. The control task was a perceptual grouping task, which was equal in difficulty as the biological motion task but did not require processing of motion signals. Schizophrenia patients showed deficits in detecting biological motion but not in the control task. This result suggests that schizophrenia patients may be unable to distinguish biological from non-biological motions. There are several possible reasons for the deficit. Schizophrenia patients may be more sensitive to local rather than global motion signals. The scrambled and biological stimuli share the same local signals but the Gestalt is radically different. In addition, abnormalities in the superior temporal cortex structure may lead to functional deficits that can be observed. Interestingly, our results are similar to that obtained from autistic children (Blake, personal communication) who have deficits in discerning intentions of others (Theory of Mind). Overall our results suggest that motion processing in schizophrenia should be examined in greater detail and also that deficits in biological motion perception may have far reaching consequences.
POST-ONSET COGNITIVE DECLINE IN SCHIZOPHRENIA IS RELATIVELY SELECTIVE FOR EXECUTIVE-ABSTRACTION FUNCTION W. S. Kremen,* A. L. Hoff, L. J. Seidman, S. V. Faraone, M. H. Wieneke, L. E. DeLisi, M. T. T s u a n g
Psychiatry, UC Davis School of Medicine, Sacramento, CA, USA Comparing first-episode and chronic schizophrenia patients may provide insights into the question of continued cognitive decline. However, variability in the clinical presentation and course of illness suggests that conclusions could vary dramatically depending on the samples being compared. We compared one first-episode (n = 58) and two chronic schizophrenia samples (n = 75; n = 74) using standardized neurocognitive scores that were based on deviations from a large control group (n = 165). Cognitive functions assessed were:
International Congress on Schizophrenia Research 2003
141
thought to reflect the contribution of the amygdala to memory formation. We predicted SCZs would fail to show this enhanced memory effect. To date, the sample consists of 10 individuals with schizophrenia (SCZ) and 9 controls (CTL). Of these, 6 and 8, respectively, had MRIs adequate for analysis. ANOVAs performed on the anlygdala volumes indicated no significant differences across hemispheres or groups [Ctls - left: 1.56 (0.45) ccs, right: 1.62 (0.3l) ccs; SCZs left: 1.41 (0.I6)ccs, fight: 1.43 (0.30) ccs]. For the emotional memory test, analyses indicated that immediately after viewing the stimuli and after a 2-week delay, free recall for very unpleasant pictures was impaired in SCZs (F=7.909, df=3, p<.05; F=9.832; df=3, p<.05). No significant group differences were found for pictures rated highly arousing, or for overall recognition of the pictures. The lack of enhanced recall for unpleasant pictures suggests disrupted amygdala function, although it is currently unclear why highly arousing pictures did not also show this effect.
FRONTAL LOBE FUNCTIONING, PSYCHIATRIC SYMPTOMS, AND QUALITY OF LIFE IN OUTPATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA A. K e n n e d y , * A. E. Wood, J. H. Poole, S. Vinogradov
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA Despite advances in the treatment of schizophrenia, outpatients with schizophrenia still experience significant impoverishment in Quality of Life (QoL). Frontal lobe dysfunction has long been implicated in the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Prior research has found poor performance on neuropsychological tests sensitive to frontal lobe functioning to be associated with negative symptoms. Both frontal lobe deficits and negative symptoms have been shown to predict functional outcomes. The relative power of generalized neurocognitive deficits as compared to symptomatology to predict functional outcomes has been a topic of considerable discussion in the recent literature. This study examined the relative power of impairments on tests of frontal lobe functioning, as compared to negative symptoms, to predict QoL. To assess frontal lobe functioning, the Modified Card Sorting Test (MCST), FAS, Animal Naming, and the Motor Signs Inventory were administered to 110 relatively high functioning outpatients with schizophrenia. Symptoms were assessed with an extended version of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. The Quality of Life Scale was administered to assess adaptive functioning and QoL. Although the subjects only exhibited mild to moderate deficits in frontal lobe functioning and mild to moderate symptoms, their QoL was significantly impaired. A principal component analysis of all neurocognitive scores rendered a four factor solution--Motor Disinhibition, Executive Function, Response Initiation, and Motor Coordination--which predicted 70% of the variance in neurocognitive scores. In a correlational matrix, none of the frontal lobe factors were related to negative symptoms. Surprisingly, the Executive factor, comprised of scores from the MCST, significantly correlated, r = -.29, p < .01, with positive symptoms. In a stepwise multiple regression equation, the best predictors of QoL were negative symptoms and level of lifetime occupational achievement (R2 = .26, p < .05). In relatively high functioning outpatients with schizophrenia, deficits in frontal lobe functioning and negative symptoms do not appear to share a common causal pathway. Furthermore, in this group, symptomatology, specifically negative symptoms, may be a better predictor of QoL than impairments in frontal lobe function. Interventions which reduce negative symptoms are
essential to improving the QoL of relatively high fimctioning outpatients with schizophrenia.
IMPAIRED RECOGNITION OF BIOLOGICAL MOTION IN SCHIZOPHRENIA J. K i m , * M. L. Doop, R. Blake, S. Park
Paychology. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA Although deficits in motion perception has been suggested to be an important feature of schizophrenia, these results are based on a narrow range of motion stimuli and restricted types tasks, for example velocity discrimination performance with a limited range of targets (Chen et al., 2000). In nature, most of the moving stimuli are biological and the brain appears to have a specialized network for detecting biological motion. The superior temporal sulcus (STS) is involved in biological motion recognition (Grossman et al., 2000). STS is also implicated in discerning the direction of body, eye gaze and head orientation and is thought to be a part of a network that allows us to infer the intentions of others. In schizophrenia patients, superior temporal cortex volume is reduced (Shenton et al., 1992). Thus, past neuropsychological and anatomical studies point to the possibility that schizophrenic patients may have deficits in biological motion perception. We examined biological motion perception by presenting a series of point-light animations and asking participants to judge whether the target looked like human or not. Half the stimuli were from a real person in motion (e.g. dancing, jumping, walking etc) and the other half were scrambled versions of the biological motion. The control task was a perceptual grouping task, which was equal in difficulty as the biological motion task but did not require processing of motion signals. Schizophrenia patients showed deficits in detecting biological motion but not in the control task. This result suggests that schizophrenia patients may be unable to distinguish biological from non-biological motions. There are several possible reasons for the deficit. Schizophrenia patients may be more sensitive to local rather than global motion signals. The scrambled and biological stimuli share the same local signals but the Gestalt is radically different. In addition, abnormalities in the superior temporal cortex structure may lead to functional deficits that can be observed. Interestingly, our results are similar to that obtained from autistic children (Blake, personal communication) who have deficits in discerning intentions of others (Theory of Mind). Overall our results suggest that motion processing in schizophrenia should be examined in greater detail and also that deficits in biological motion perception may have far reaching consequences.
POST-ONSET COGNITIVE DECLINE IN SCHIZOPHRENIA IS RELATIVELY SELECTIVE FOR EXECUTIVE-ABSTRACTION FUNCTION W. S. Kremen,* A. L. Hoff, L. J. Seidman, S. V. Faraone, M. H. Wieneke, L. E. DeLisi, M. T. T s u a n g
Psychiatry, UC Davis School of Medicine, Sacramento, CA, USA Comparing first-episode and chronic schizophrenia patients may provide insights into the question of continued cognitive decline. However, variability in the clinical presentation and course of illness suggests that conclusions could vary dramatically depending on the samples being compared. We compared one first-episode (n = 58) and two chronic schizophrenia samples (n = 75; n = 74) using standardized neurocognitive scores that were based on deviations from a large control group (n = 165). Cognitive functions assessed were:
International Congress on Schizophrenia Research 2003