|
|
The context of mirror neurons and schizophrenia in selected aspects of cognition
Bendová, Marie ; Šivicová, Gabriela (referee) ; Loneková, Katarína (referee)
When a person performs or perceive an action, in any modality, specific structures called mirror neurons are activated. The automatic activation of these neurons - the "mirror mechanism" - during action recognition may contribute to the common course of higher cognitive functions, such as imitation, empathy, social cognition and language. Schizophrenia is associated with a number of cognitive changes, some of which may be explained on the basis of possible mirror mechanism distortion. Using fMRI, our research firstly examined the connectivity of selected brain areas in groups of patients and healthy volunteers. Initial research has shown that there are significant differences in the connectivity of cortical and subcortical structures between patients and the control group. The language experiment also revealed significant differences in the brain activation between these two groups. The configuration chosen language experiment has proved, on a group of healthy volunteers using the applied stimulus of the differences in the brain activation based on the characteristics of cue words. Therefore, neuronal changes accompanying schizophrenic illness probably result in changes in brain function when processing complex stimuli and are also reflected in the overall preparedness for reactions. Key words:...
|
|
|
Mirror neurons and language in schizophrenia
Bendová, Marie ; Kulišťák, Petr (advisor) ; Loneková, Katarína (referee)
Mirror neurons are a specific kind of visuomotor neurons that are involved in action execution and also in action perception. The mirror mechanism is linked to a variety of complex psychological functions such as social-cognitive functions and language. People with schizophrenia have often difficulties both in mirror neuron system and in language skills. In the first part of our research we studied the connectivity of mirror neuron areas (such as IFG, STG, PMC, SMC and so on) by fMRI in resting state and the differences between a group of patients during first episode psychosis and a group of healthy controls. The second part of our research was dedicated to language: if there are specific activations in certain parts of the cortex (such as SMC, Broca's and Wernicke's areas) along with a specific meaning of the word stimuli and if these activations are disrupted in patients with schizophrenia. The first part of the research showed a significant difference in the mirror neuron system connectivity between these two groups. The patients had stronger connections between the thalamus (which mediates sensory information) and the cortical areas while the controls had the cortical areas more interconnected. The second part of our research, a language experiment, showed significant differences between the...
|
guest ::
