Project Summary

Jin Fan, Ph.D. (Young Investigator 2006) of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, will study attentional abnormalities in schizophrenia. Although many studies have shown attentional abnormalities in people with schizophrenia, it is not clear if it is a global deficit or if it relates to specific attentional networks, and whether treatment improves the functioning of these attentional networks. In this study, using the attention network test, the efficiency of three attentional networks--alerting, orienting, and executive control—in schizophrenic patients will be compared to that in healthy subjects. Dr. Fan hypothesizes that patients with schizophrenia have a large and highly significant deficit in the executive network; a smaller, but significant deficit in the orienting network and overall reaction time and accuracy; and no deficit in the alerting network. Treatment with atypical drugs should improve these attentional functions.

Program Area: SCHIZOPHRENIA/PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS\Schizophrenia

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