'Splitting of the mind' revisited: recent neuroimaging evidence for functional dysconnection in schizophrenia and its relation to symptoms.

摘要

Bleuler coined the term "schizophrenia" to capture the fragmentation and disintegration of the mind and behavior as the essence of the disorder (1). The splitting of thoughts, feelings, and actions was duly noted, but very few studies over the past century have addressed how and why these functions are dissociated in schizophrenia. Despite the robust evidence for the influence of emotion on cognition and vice versa (2, 3), the nature of these interactions and their role in psychotic symptoms are not clearly elucidated. Vast evidence indicates that emotion affects memory processes (4). Further, it has long been known that schizophrenia is associated with chronically elevated levels of anxiety and stress (5), and paranoid symptoms are hypothesized to be related to abnormal threat processing (6). As such, the influence of emotion on cognitive processes in schizophrenia deserves more attention than it has received.