Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T15:03:08.648Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Experiences of alien control in schizophrenia reflect a disorder in the central monitoring of action

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Christopher D. Frith*
Affiliation:
CRC Psychiatry, Harrow
D. John Done
Affiliation:
CRC Psychiatry, Harrow
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr C. D. Frith, Division of Psychiatry, Clinical Research Centre, Watford Road, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 3UJ.

Synopsis

Twenty-three acute psychotic patients who were drug free at the time of testing performed a motor task designed to elicit many errors. Normal subjects and many of the psychotic patients were able to correct these errors in the absence of visual feedback. The ability to make such corrections depends on the subject knowing what response he has just made. Patients with experiences of alien control of their thoughts and actions who formed a subgroup of those classified as schizophrenic, were significantly less likely to make error corrections in the absence of visual feedback. This result is consistent with our previous suggestion (Frith, 1987) that these symptoms are a consequence of problems with the central monitoring of responses.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Angel, R. W. (1976). Efference copy in the control of movement. Neurology 26, 11641168.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Braff, D. L., Calloway, I. & Naylor, J. (1977). Very short-term memory dysfunction in schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry 34, 2530.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feinberg, I. (1978). Efference copy and corollary discharge: Implications for thinking and its disorders. Schizophrenia Bulletin 4, 636640.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frith, C. D. (1987). The positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia reflect impairments in the perception and initiation of action. Psychological Medicine 17, 631648.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frith, C. D. & Done, D. J. (1988). Towards a neuropsychology of schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry 153, 437443.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnstone, E. C., Crow, T. J., Frith, C. D. & Owens, D. G. C. (1988). The Northwick Park ‘functional’ psychosis study: diagnosis and treatment response. Lancet ii, 119125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malenka, R. C., Angel, R. W., Hampton, B. & Berger, P. A. (1982). Impaired central error-correcting behaviour in schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry 39, 101107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Megaw, J. D. (1972). Directional errors and their correction in a discrete tracking task. Ergonomics 15, 633643.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muller-Preuss, P. (1978). Single unit responses of the auditory cortex in the squirrel monkey to self-produced and loudspeaker transmitted vocalisations. Neuroscience Letters Suppl. 1, S.7.Google Scholar
Rabbitt, P. M. A. (1966). Error-correction time without external signals. Nature 212, 438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabbitt, P. M. A. & Vyas, S. (1981). Processing a display even after you made a response to it. How perceptual errors can be corrected. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 33A, 223239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, D. L. & Wurtz, R. H. (1976). Use of an extra retinal signal by monkey superior colliculus neurons to distinguish real from self-induced stimulus movement. Journal of Neurophysiology 39, 852870.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. R. & Sartorius, N. (1974). The Description and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. An Instruction Manual for the PSE and CATEGO System. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar