Abstract

Schizophrenia is a chronic and disabling mental illness characterized by a disordered sense of self. Current theories suggest that deficiencies in the sense of control over one’s actions (Sense of Agency, SoA) may underlie some of the symptoms of schizophrenia. However, it is not clear if agency deficits are a precursor or a result of psychosis. Here, we investigated full body agency using virtual reality in a cohort of 22q11 deletion syndrome participants with a genetic propensity for schizophrenia. In two experiments employing virtual reality, full body motion tracking, and online feedback, we investigated SoA in two separate domains. Our results show that participants with 22q11DS had a considerable deficit in monitoring their actions, compared to age-matched controls in both the temporal and spatial domain. This was coupled with a bias toward erroneous attribution of actions to the self. These results indicate that nonpsychotic 22q11DS participants have a domain general deficit in the conscious sensorimotor mechanisms underlying the bodily self. Our data reveal an abnormality in the SoA in a cohort with a genetic predisposition for schizophrenia, but without psychosis, providing evidence that deficits in delineation of the self may be a precursor rather than a result of the psychotic state.

中文翻译：

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人类精神分裂症基因模型中的机构缺陷：来自 22q11DS 患者的见解

 抽象的

精神分裂症是一种慢性致残性精神疾病，其特征是自我意识紊乱。目前的理论表明，对自己行为的控制感（代理感，SoA）的缺陷可能是精神分裂症某些症状的根源。然而，尚不清楚机构缺陷是精神病的先兆还是结果。在这里，我们使用虚拟现实技术对一群具有精神分裂症遗传倾向的 22q11 缺失综合征参与者进行了全身代理研究。在两项采用虚拟现实、全身运动跟踪和在线反馈的实验中，我们在两个不同的领域研究了 SoA。我们的结果表明，与年龄匹配的对照组相比，22q11DS 参与者在时间和空间领域的行为监控方面存在相当大的缺陷。这与错误地将行为归因于自我的偏见相结合。这些结果表明，非精神病性 22q11DS 参与者在身体自我基础的意识感觉运动机制方面存在总体缺陷。我们的数据揭示了具有精神分裂症遗传倾向但没有精神病的队列中 SoA 的异常，这提供了证据表明自我描述缺陷可能是精神病状态的前兆，而不是结果。