Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Willed action in schizophrenia.

Robyn Langdon1, Jen McLaren, Vince Polito

  • 1Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, NSW, Australia. robyn@maccs.mq.edu.au

Psychiatry Research
|February 13, 2007
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Mobilising community-managed organisations: A call to action to confront physical health inequities in people living with complex mental health challenges.

The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry·2026
Same author

Food insecurity in adults living with severe mental illness in Australia: an exploration of causes and experiences using a co-design approach.

Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology·2026
Same author

Theory of mind skill predicts anticipatory guilt-proneness in schizophrenia.

Cognitive neuropsychiatry·2026
Same author

Patient perspectives on research gaps in cluster headache.

Headache·2026
Same author

The prevalence of depression and anxiety and associated factors among school-going adolescents in poverty and conflict-affected settings in Uganda.

BMC psychiatry·2025
Same author

Keeping the Body in Mind-Primary: evaluation of a community-based lifestyle intervention for people with severe mental illness accessing primary care.

Australian journal of primary health·2025
Same journal

Comparative efficacy and acceptability of pharmacological interventions for postpartum depression: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.

Psychiatry research·2026
Same journal

Measurements of suicidal ideation in ecological momentary assessment based on smartphone: a systematic review.

Psychiatry research·2026
Same journal

Effect of Australian telepsychiatry services on attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder prescriptions.

Psychiatry research·2026
Same journal

Cognitive correlates of Antisaccade Task performance in bipolar disorder.

Psychiatry research·2026
Same journal

National estimates of exposure to potentially traumatic events among individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder: Findings from The National OCD Survey.

Psychiatry research·2026
Same journal

Digitally delivered cognitive bias modification for interpretation targeting hostile interpretation bias in compulsory drug rehabilitation: A feasibility randomized trial.

Psychiatry research·2026
See all related articles

Schizophrenia patients with severe negative symptoms rely more on external cues for tasks, suggesting a disorder in willed action. This contrasts with controls and patients with fewer negative symptoms who struggle with dual-task performance.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Psychiatry
  • Human Motor Control

Background:

  • Schizophrenia is characterized by disruptions in both positive and negative symptoms.
  • Negative symptoms, such as avolition and alogia, are thought to reflect deficits in motivation and goal-directed behavior.
  • Understanding the nature of action control in schizophrenia is crucial for developing effective interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the differences in stimulus-driven versus willed action between schizophrenic patients and healthy controls.
  • To examine how negative symptoms in schizophrenia influence motor task performance under various conditions.
  • To explore the potential role of external cueing in modulating action control in schizophrenia.

Main Methods:

  • A finger-tap task and a peg-placement task were administered to schizophrenic patients and healthy controls.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Tasks were performed under unimanual, bimanual, and dual-task conditions.
  • External cueing (metronome) and practice effects were also assessed.

    • Main Results:

    • Patients with marked negative symptoms performed worse on unimanual tasks but benefited significantly from external cueing.
    • In dual-task conditions, patients with more severe negative symptoms utilized finger-tapping as a pacing stimulus for peg-placement.
    • Controls and patients with fewer negative symptoms showed performance decrements in dual-task conditions, indicating impaired self-initiated action.

    Conclusions:

    • The findings support the hypothesis that marked negative symptoms in schizophrenia are associated with a deficit in willed action.
    • Patients with severe negative symptoms exhibit a greater reliance on stimulus-driven actions.
    • These results highlight the distinct mechanisms of action control underlying different symptom profiles in schizophrenia.