[The effect of normal and pathological human functional states on the development of adequate behavior in an...

Behaviours of 40 healthy, 30 neurotic and 35 schizophrenic subjects were compared in the situation of formation of motivation for successful performance of a complicated task. In the case of an easy task, the subjects had to push a button maximally quickly after the second buzz in a double sound stimulus; in the case of the complicated task, after special motivating instruction, the subjects had to show motor response coinciding with the second buzz. The easy task was performed by all participants of the experiment, while the complicated one was performed by healthy subjects and by neurotics after the course of therapy. The differences in the performance were accompanied by specific peculiarities in brain slow potentials. The successful performance induced an increase in the strength of conditional negative and post-imperative negative waves in frontal lobes in the healthy and treated neurotics. Pathological functioning of schizophrenics reflected in quantitative and qualitative modifications of the electrical response patterns.