2003 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
A psychophysiological study on the language function of schizophrenia -Focusing on syntactic processing
| Project/Area Number |
14570942
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Psychiatric science
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| Research Institution | Showa University |
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Principal Investigator |
NAKAGOME Kazuyuki Showa University, School of Medicine, Associate Professor, 医学部, 助教授 (30198056)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
SHINODA Junko Showa University, School of Medicine, Assistant Professor, 医学部, 助手 (70349083)
ITOH Kenji University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Medicine, Assistant Professor, 医学部, 助手 (80010106)
MIMURA Masaru Showa University, School of Medicine, Associate Professor, 医学部, 助教授 (00190728)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2002 – 2003
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| Keywords | schizophrenic / event-related potential / syntactic function / sustained negativity / P600 / scrambled sentence |
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| Research Abstract |
This study aimed to investigate the syntactic processing function of schizophrenia, using event-related potentials (ERPs) recorded while reading sentences in which the order of the sentence elements i.e. subjects, indirect objects and direct objects, was systematically varied, although in legal grammatical constructions. Three types of sentences were presented phrase by phrase in such a way as a) canonical (S-IO-DO-V), b) short scrambled (S-DO-IO-V) and c) long scrambled sentences (DO-S-IO-V). It was assumed that a filler-gap dependency between DO and a position between IO-V was contained in b) and c). A question followed each sentence to assure that the subjects were able to remember the context of the sentence. Eleven patients with schizophrenia and 18 normal controls participated in the study. Schizophrenic patients showed a marked sustained negativity between filler and gap elicited by the long scrambled sentences compared to the normal controls, suggesting a verbal working memory deficit. Moreover, the patients showed a reduced level of positivity especially in the posterior region elicited by the pre-gap phrase (JO), which suggests a difficulty in integrating the stored element into the phrase structure representation in patients with schizophrenia.
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