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Perception of self-generated action in schizophrenia
Pierre Fourneret1, Frédérique de Vignemont, Nicolas Franck
1Institut de Sciences Cognitives UMR CNRS, Bron, France. fourneret@isc.cnrs.fr
Cognitive Neuropsychiatry
|March 31, 2006
Summary
Schizophrenia patients struggle with self-monitoring actions due to a deficient forward model, impacting their awareness of motor control and performance in sensorimotor tasks.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Psychiatry
Background:
- Self-generated actions rely on sensorimotor integration and a forward model for intent-action congruence.
- Mismatches between expected and actual sensory feedback trigger conscious awareness of motor control.
- A forward model, utilizing efference copies, is crucial for predicting action consequences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the hypothesis that schizophrenia symptoms stem from a deficient forward model of action.
- To explore the role of forward model deficiencies in positive symptoms like delusions of control.
Main Methods:
- A visuo-motor conflict task was administered to 19 schizophrenia patients and 19 controls.
- Participants verbally reported their hand's perceived position after each trial.
Main Results:
- Schizophrenia patients, regardless of phenotype, failed to consciously represent their hand movements.
- This lack of conscious representation impaired sensorimotor adjustment performance compared to controls.
Conclusions:
- Findings suggest a functional monitoring deficit in schizophrenia, linked to forward model impairments.
- This impairment affects the awareness of motor control and action prediction.