精神分裂症视觉周边抑制异常及其神经机制

精神分裂症患者普遍存在视觉信息处理异常,这些视知觉功能紊乱涉及视通路的高级以及低级视区,表明在部分精神分裂症患者中,视觉系统早期或晚期的不同信息处理阶段均可能存在损伤.阐明这些感知觉信息处理紊乱的神经机制对理解精神分裂症神经病理生理学机制有重大意义.视觉周边抑制(surround suppression)是一种广泛存在的视觉现象,指在神经生理水平或视知觉水平上外周对中央视觉目标的抑制作用.精神分裂症的视觉周边抑制发生异常改变,然而其损伤状况并不完全一致,且其具体神经机制目前仍不清楚.本文以周边抑制为对象,从精神分裂症周边抑制改变状况及其神经机制两个层面简述了国内外精神分裂症视觉周边抑制的研究进展.未来研究方向需要系统全面地调查精神分裂症周边抑制损伤状况,综合脑科学研究技术共同探究精神分裂症患者周边抑制异常的具体神经环路.

Neural Mechanisms of Abnormal Surround Suppression in Schizophrenia

Specific visual processing abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia are well documented and involve high-level and low-level stages in the visual pathway. It is indicated that a portion of patients with schizophrenia may undergo visual processing anomalies that affect either early or late visual information processing or both. These sensory information processing disorders are considered to be associated with advanced cognitive dysfunction and their mechanisms are of great importance to the elucidation of several neuropathophysiological mechanisms underlying schizophrenia. Surround suppression is a well-known visual phenomenon, which refers to the inhibition of surround stimuli to center ones, physiologically or perceptually. In this paper, we reviewed the advances in schizophrenia studies on visual surround suppression in behavioral and neural levels. Extensive research on surround suppression in patients with schizophrenia revealed abnormal surround suppression in patients with schizophrenia. However, the results are not consistent, and the neural mechanisms underlying the impaired surround suppression have yet to be identified. Therefore, a systematic and comprehensive investigation combined with multiple neuroscientific technologies is required to further understand the mechanisms underlying these deficits.