Computational neuroscience models propose that working memory (WM) involves recurrent excitatory feedback loops that maintain firing over time along with lateral inhibition that prevents the spreading of activity to other feature values. In behavioral paradigms, this lateral inhibition appears to cause a repulsion of WM representations away from each other and from other strong sources of input. Recent computational models of schizophrenia have proposed that reduction in the strength of inhibition relative to strength of excitation may underlie impaired cognition, and this leads to the prediction that repulsion effects should be reduced in people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (PSZ) relative to healthy control subjects (HCS). We tested this hypothesis in 2 experiments measuring WM repulsion effects. In Experiment 1, 45 PSZ and 32 HCS remembered the location of a single object relative to a centrally presented visual landmark and reported this location after a short delay. The reported location was repelled away from the landmark in both groups, but this repulsion effect was increased rather than decreased in PSZ relative to HCS. In Experiment 2, 41 PSZ and 34 HCS remembered 2 sequentially presented orientations and reported each orientation after a short delay. The reported orientations were biased away from each other in both groups, and this repulsion effect was again more pronounced in PSZ than in HCS. Contrary to the widespread hypothesis of reduced inhibition in schizophrenia, we provide robust evidence from 2 experiments showing that the behavioral performance of PSZ exhibited an exaggeration rather than a reduction of competitive inhibition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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精神分裂症患者对工作记忆表征的排斥增加。


计算神经科学模型提出，工作记忆 (WM) 涉及周期性的兴奋性反馈回路，该回路随着时间的推移保持放电，以及防止活动扩散到其他特征值的横向抑制。在行为范式中，这种横向抑制似乎会导致 WM 表征彼此排斥以及远离其他强输入源。最近的精神分裂症计算模型提出，抑制强度相对于兴奋强度的降低可能是认知受损的基础，这导致了这样的预测：相对于健康对照受试者，精神分裂症谱系障碍（PSZ）患者的排斥效应应该减少（HCS）。我们通过两个测量 WM 排斥效应的实验检验了这一假设。在实验 1 中，45 PSZ 和 32 HCS 记住了单个物体相对于中心呈现的视觉地标的位置，并在短暂延迟后报告了该位置。报告的位置在两组中都被排斥远离地标，但相对于 HCS，PSZ 中的这种排斥效应增加而不是减少。在实验 2 中，41 个 PSZ 和 34 个 HCS 记住了 2 个连续呈现的方向，并在短暂延迟后报告了每个方向。报告的方向在两组中都存在偏差，并且这种排斥效应在 PSZ 中比在 HCS 中更加明显。与精神分裂症抑制减少的广泛假设相反，我们通过两项实验提供了强有力的证据，表明 PSZ 的行为表现表现出竞争性抑制的夸大而不是减少。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。