[Autism, inhibition, electrophysiology and biochemistry]

The term "inhibition" is not usually employed in the psychopathology of schizophrenia. However, in defining some neuroleptics' action, the work "desinhibition" is currently used and Pavlov explained the main features of the schizofrenic syndrome through a transmarginal inhibition mechanism. The purpose of this study is to investigate if an inhibition process underlies some phenomena shown up by the evoked potentials (EPs) method. Usually, a lower EPs' amplitude is seen in schizophrenic patients than in normals. This phenomenon is displayed by: -- simple stimuli EPs: they show weak amplitude and high variability; -- double-shock EPs: they have a long recovery-cycle; -- conditioned EPs: their amplitude is minimally augmented by coupling the conditioned and the unconditioned stimulus; -- EPs in experiments with increasing-intensity stimuli: their amplitude decreases as stimulation intensity increases. Some of these concurrent data could indicate a transmarginal inhibition, particularly the lengthening of the recovery cycle and the amplitude-reduction phenomenon. Although these are preliminary results, nevertheless some relationships emerge between clemical, electrophysiological and biochemical data.