Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain—3-Dimensional Proportional System: An Approach to Cerebral Imaging, J. Talairach, P. Tournoux. Georg Thieme Verlag, New York (1988), 122 pp., 130 figs. DM 268

The detection of psychiatric illness by questionnaire

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/5/110/206.full.pdf

The american psychological association.

Traditional approaches to human information processing tend to deal with perception and action planning in isolation, so that an adequate account of the perception-action interface is still missing On the perceptual side, the dominant cognitive view largely underestimates, and thus fails to account for, the impact of action-related processes on both the processing of perceptual information and on perceptual learning On the action side, most approaches conceive of action planning as a mere continuation of stimulus processing, thus failing to account for the goal-directedness of even the simplest reaction in an experimental task We propose a new framework for a more adequate theoretical treatment of perception and action planning, in which perceptual contents and action plans are coded in a common representational medium by feature codes with distal reference Perceived events (perceptions) and to-be-produced events (actions) are equally represented by integrated, task-tuned networks of feature codes – cognitive structures we call event codes We give an overview of evidence from a wide variety of empirical domains, such as spatial stimulus-response compatibility, sensorimotor synchronization, and ideomotor action, showing that our main assumptions are well supported by the data

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0140525X01000103

The Theory of Event Coding (TEC): a framework for perception and action planning.

"Weak central coherence" refers to the detail-focused processing style proposed to characterise autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The original suggestion of a core deficit in central processing resulting in failure to extract global form/meaning, has been challenged in three ways. First, it may represent an outcome of superiority in local processing. Second, it may be a processing bias, rather than deficit. Third, weak coherence may occur alongside, rather than explain, deficits in social cognition. A review of over 50 empirical studies of coherence suggests robust findings of local bias in ASD, with mixed findings regarding weak global processing. Local bias appears not to be a mere side-effect of executive dysfunction, and may be independent of theory of mind deficits. Possible computational and neural models are discussed.

http://www.curriculumconnection4sped.com/uploads/1/2/6/4/12648571/firth_central_coherence.pdf

The Weak Coherence Account: Detail-Focused Cognitive Style in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

An experiment is described in which deluded subjects with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or of delusional disorder (paranoia) were compared with a nondeluded psychiatric control group and a normal control group on a probabilistic inference task. Factors relevant to belief formation and maintenance were investigated. Deluded subjects requested less information before reaching a decision and were more ready to change their estimates of the likelihood of an event when confronted with potentially disconfirmatory information. No differences were found between the two diagnostic groups of deluded subjects. The results are discussed in light of prevailing theories of the importance of abnormal experience rather than reasoning biases in the formation and maintenance of delusional beliefs. It is suggested that a reasoning abnormality is involved, which may coexist with perceptual abnormalities.

Reasoning in Deluded Schizophrenic and Paranoid Patients: Biases in Performance on a Probabilistic Inference Task

Differences between acute (N = 26) and chronic (N = 27) schizophrenics diagnosed by Research Diagnostic Criteria and normal controls (N = 53) were examined in a task measuring latent inhibition, i.e., the retardation of learning that normally occurs when a subject forms an association to a stimulus previously repeatedly presented without consequence. In rats, latent inhibition is disrupted by amphetamine and restored by neuroleptics. It was predicted that latent inhibition would be similarly disrupted in acute schizophrenics (presumably in a hyperdopaminergic state) but not in chronic, medicated schizophrenics. Each group was subdivided and assigned randomly to two experimental conditions, preexposure or non-preexposure. Preexposed subjects first heard 30 bursts of white noise through headphones while monitoring a list of nonsense syllables; non-preexposed subjects listened to the nonsense syllables without the white noise. Subjects in both conditions were then given the opportunity to learn that the noise signalled increments in a visually displayed number. Preexposed normals and chronic schizophrenics learned this association more slowly than non-preexposed subjects (latent inhibition); as predicted, acute schizophrenics failed to display this effect. After 6 to 7 weeks, 11 acute and 13 chronic patients were retested; both groups now showed latent inhibition. These results are discussed in relation to the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia.

Differential performance of acute and chronic schizophrenics in a latent inhibition task.

An experiment is described in which deluded subjects were compared with a non-deluded psychiatric control group and a normal control group on a probabilistic inference task. Deluded subjects were f...

Probabilistic judgements in deluded and non-deluded subjects

A simple (or simplistic?) cognitive model for schizophrenia

Background. Contemporary cognitive models of auditory verbal hallucinations propose that they arise through defective self-monitoring. We used a paradigm that engages verbal self-monitoring to investigate this theory in patients with schizophrenia. Methods. Ten patients with auditory verbal hallucinations and delusions (hallucinators), eight patients with delusions but no hallucinations (non-hallucinators), and 20 non-psychiatric control subjects were tested. Participants read single adjectives aloud, under the following randomized conditions: reading aloud; reading aloud with acoustic distortion of their own voice; reading aloud with alien feedback (someone else’s voice); and reading aloud with distorted alien feedback. Immediately after articulating each word, participants identified the source of the speech they heard (‘self’}‘other’}‘unsure’), via a button press. Response choice and reaction time were recorded. Results. When reading aloud with distorted feedback of their own voice, patients in both groups made more errors than controls; they either misidentified its source or were unsure. Hallucinators were particularly prone to misattributing their distorted voice to someone else, and were more likely to make errors when the words presented were derogatory. Both patient groups made faster decisions than controls about the source of distorted or alien speech, but faster responses were only associated with errors in the former condition. Conclusions. Impaired verbal self-monitoring was evident in both hallucinators and nonhallucinators. As both groups had delusions, the results suggest an association between delusions and impaired judgements about ambiguous sensory stimuli. The specific tendency of hallucinators to misattribute their distorted voice to someone else may reflect impaired awareness of internally generated verbal material.

http://www.srossell.com/Publications/11%20Johns%20et%20al%202001.pdf

David R. Hemsley

Papers

Reasoning in Deluded Schizophrenic and Paranoid Patients: Biases in Performance on a Probabilistic Inference Task

Differential performance of acute and chronic schizophrenics in a latent inhibition task.

Probabilistic judgements in deluded and non-deluded subjects

A simple (or simplistic?) cognitive model for schizophrenia

Verbal self-monitoring and auditory verbal hallucinations in patients with schizophrenia.