Neurocognitive Deficits

Question 1

What are the neurocognitive deficits?

Answer 1

Behavioural problems
Lower IQ
planning and info processing deficits
attention deficits 
working memory deficits
sensory motor gating deficits
antisaccade task
oculomotor function - eye tracking

Question 2

What are the neurocognitive deficits associated with?

Answer 2

Frontal lobe hypofunction - the negative symptoms can be caused by hypofrontality, decrease activity of the frontal lobes - the dlPFC in particular

Question 3

What do patients do poor on?

Answer 3

Neuropsycholgoical tests that are sensitive to prefrontal damage

Question 4

What attentional deficits do they show?

Answer 4

The stroop task
The instructions are to name the colour of the ink in the following words, either congruent or incongruent (mismatch in name and ink). Patients are slower and less accurate because it involves the tendency to read the words and inhibit response

Question 5

What working memory deficits do they show?

Answer 5

Winsconsin card sort test -
patients asked to sort a deck of cards, get told it is wrong so have to do it in a diff way - involves planning and deciding how they will be sorted
normally during the task, there is an increased regional blood flow to the dlPFC measured by fMRI - patients have less blood flow, showing frontal lobe isn’t activated

Question 6

What sensory motor gating deficits do they show?

Answer 6

Sensory motor gating deficits - difficulties screening out irrelevant stimuli and focussing on saleint ones, don’t have that gate, let everything in
P50 signal in ERP’s test
presented with 2 auditory clicks
healthy response - respond to first click, then 80% diminished response to second click as had already heard it
patients - no change to second peak
Pre-pulse inhibition task
loud noise, presented with a weak stimulus after. normal response = inhibit the startle, not as jumpy. People with schizophrenia do not inhibit the startle

Question 7

What oculomotor function deficits do they show?

Answer 7

Smooth pursuit task - tracking a moving stimulus
healthy - follow it smooth
patient - eye movements not smooth, catch up pattern

Question 8

What is the main problem in these tasks?

Answer 8

Their frontal cortex isn’t working