ABSTRACT
Non-response of the autonomic orienting response (OR), as indexed jointly by deficient skin conductance (SCR) and finger pulse amplitude responding (FPAR), has been shown to occur with excessive frequency in the schizophrenic population. The present study is an attempt to replicate earlier evidence that SCR-OR and FPAR-OR, when measured in concert, could distinguish schizophrenic from depressed patients (Bernstein et al. 1988). This issue is critical of the question of diagnostic specificity of OR non-responding, since reduced SCR has been found repeatedly in depression as well as in schizophrenia. We examined SCR and FPAR concurrently in 69 schizophrenic, 45 depressed, and 67 normal subjects. SCR non-responding was more frequent in both schizophrenics and depressives than in normal controls, while only the schizophrenics displayed excessive FPAR non-responding. Moreover, among SCR non-responders, concordant OR non-responding--defined as non-responding indexed simultaneously in both the SCR and FPAR components--was most common in the schizophrenic sample. These findings support our previous conclusion that OR non-responding in depression, may have distinct peripheral origins. Our results also suggest that measuring multiple biochemically distinct components of the OR may be more sound methodologically than obtaining a single channel recording.
Subject(s)
Arousal/physiology , Depressive Disorder/diagnosis , Galvanic Skin Response/physiology , Heart Rate/physiology , Schizophrenia/diagnosis , Schizophrenic Psychology , Adolescent , Adult , Attention/physiology , Autonomic Nervous System/physiopathology , Depressive Disorder/physiopathology , Depressive Disorder/psychology , Diagnosis, Differential , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Peripheral Nerves/physiopathology , Reference Values , Schizophrenia/physiopathologySubject(s)
Career Mobility , General Surgery , Physicians, Family/psychology , Family Practice/economics , Humans , Job Satisfaction , Male , Middle Aged , New JerseyABSTRACT
Schizophrenic patients are frequently orienting nonresponders to innocuous stimuli, become responsive to significant target signals, and become hyporesponsive again on prolonged repetition. We wish to a) determine whether schizophrenic patients can display orienting response (OR) flexibility, responding to newly designated targets and ceasing to respond to newly designated nontargets; b) determine whether renewed hyporesponding can be averted with reminders of target relevance and repeated introduction of new targets; and c) compare schizophrenics with depressives and normal controls. Fifty schizophrenics (14 drug free), 50 depressives (20 drug free), and 50 normal controls receive four trial blocks involving the same sequence of 16 1000- or 2000-Hz tones delivered to either the right or left ear. A subsample of each group (N = 14) receives all blocks as a simple habituation series; others (N = 36) have to press a pedal for designated target signals (left ear or right ear, 1000 Hz or 2000 Hz), ignoring all nontarget tones. On each trial block, a new target signal is defined, and previous targets are discarded. Skin conductance and finger pulse amplitude analyses are presented. Both patient groups show enhanced ORs to newly relevant targets and ceased ORs to newly irrelevant former targets as well as normals. Both show OR decline with target repetition despite reminders and new targets.
