Cerebral signs of altered adaptability in females with acute psychosis.
In psychosis, behavior is not guided by sensory cues from surroundings. Novel, meaningful behaviors require intact integrative functions such as short-term memory and motor planning, as well as an optimized level of arousal. In this study, we monitored markers of automatic auditory processing in 15 female never-medicated psychotic patients. Fifty-eight channels of EEG were recorded simultaneously with sympathetic skin responses while arousing auditory stimuli were delivered. Neuropsychological tests concentrating on frontal lobe functions were also performed. Prominent neurophysiological and behavioral signs of increased cortical activation were observed in psychotic patients. This widespread disinhibition may attempt to compensate for the impairment of neuronal processing of sensory input from surroundings in the earliest stages of a psychotic illness.
Valkonen-Korhonen
Minna
M
Department of Psychiatry, Kuopio University Hospital, P.O. Box 1777, Finland.
Könönen
Mervi
M
Yppärilä
Heidi
H
Sipilä
Perttu
P
Lehtonen
Johannes
J
Partanen
Juhani
J
Tarkka
Ina M
IM
Karhu
Jari
J
D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory; D005260:Female; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008875:Middle Aged; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric