title: Ketamine administration in healthy volunteers reproduces aberrant agency experiences associated with schizophrenia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Aberrant experience of agency is characteristic of schizophrenia. An understanding of the neurobiological basis of such experience is therefore of considerable importance for developing successful models of the disease. We aimed to characterise the effects of ketamine, a drug model for psychosis, on sense of agency (SoA). SoA is associated with a subjective compression of the temporal interval between an action and its effects: This is known as "intentional binding". This action-effect binding provides an indirect measure of SoA. Previous research has found that the magnitude of binding is exaggerated in patients with schizophrenia. We therefore investigated whether ketamine administration to otherwise healthy adults induced a similar pattern of binding.
  
  
  METHODS
  14 right-handed healthy participants (8 female; mean age 22.4 years) were given low-dose ketamine (100 ng/mL plasma) and completed the binding task. They also underwent structured clinical interviews.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ketamine mimicked the performance of schizophrenia patients on the intentional binding task, significantly increasing binding relative to placebo. The size of this effect also correlated with aberrant bodily experiences engendered by the drug.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These data suggest that ketamine may be able to mimic certain aberrant agency experiences that characterise schizophrenia. The link to individual changes in bodily experience suggests that the fundamental change produced by the drug has wider consequences in terms of individuals' experiences of their bodies and movements.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychiatry, Brain Mapping Unit , University of Cambridge , Cambridge , UK.
authors.forename: James W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.forename: Danielle C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.forename: Philip R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Corlett
authors.forename: Fernando S
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Arana
authors.forename: Hannah L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Morgan
authors.forename: Antony R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Absalom
authors.forename: Ram
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Adapa
authors.forename: Sanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: de Wit
authors.forename: Jessica C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Everitt
authors.forename: Jenny M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Gardner
authors.forename: Jennifer S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Pigott
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Haggard
authors.forename: Paul C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Fletcher
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D018691:Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000187:drug effects*; D007649:Ketamine; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011605:Psychoses, Substance-Induced / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000139:chemically induced*; D012677:Sensation / Q000187:drug effects; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D018691:Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists; D007649:Ketamine