The project is developing information processing models of cognitive anomalies in individuals at risk for severe psychopathology and, once those models are adequately developed, intends to develop preventive interventions to reduce the risk of deterioration.
The specific aims of the project continue unchanged: 1) To refine objective psychophysiological criteria for identifying older adolescents and young adults at risk for severe psychopathology. 2) To characterize the high-risk subjects clinically, on the basis of a diagnostic interview, and to explore any psychopathology already present and the covariation of clinical and psychophysiological phenomena. 3) To develop and test theories of subtle information processing abnormalities in these subjects, preparatory to developing cognitively oriented preventive interventions targeted at those abnormalities. With the goal of developing preventive interventions, the present project attempts to integrate several aspects of research on individuals at risk for schizophrenia and sever mood disorder. In the coming project period we will emphasize (a) well established deficits in the orienting response (OR) and (b) basic information processing deficits, particularly emphasizing event-related brain potential (ERP) measures of competition among cognitive processes for attentional resources. This research converges on a unified understanding of cognitive deficits in subjects at risk for severe psychopathology. Five groups of nonpatients (anhedonics, perceptual aberrators, dysthymics, cyclothymics, controls) will be studied in 2 ways: structured clinical interview and psychophysiological recording during cognitive tasks. Important results to date include several interesting autonomic and CNS (ERP) orienting response relationships, unusual sensory gating evidenced in the P50 component in the ERP, significantly enhanced N200 in the ERP of groups defined by screening questionnaires or by diagnostic interview, and significantly reduced P300 in the ERP of two groups. We propose a theoretical integration of the psychophysiological findings for these at-risk groups. We wish to follow up these findings with further studies of these groups, emphasizing the orienting, sensory gating, and P300 effects associated with cognitive resource allocation difficulties.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH039628-09
Application #
2033624
Study Section
Clinical Neuroscience and Biological Psychopathology Review Committee (CNBP)
Project Start
1986-02-01
Project End
1999-12-31
Budget Start
1997-01-01
Budget End
1999-12-31
Support Year
9
Fiscal Year
1997
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
041544081
City
Champaign
State
IL
Country
United States
Zip Code
61820
Deldin, Patricia; Keller, Jennifer; Casas, Brooks R et al. (2006) Normal N400 in mood disorders. Biol Psychol 71:74-9
Nitschke, Jack B; Heller, Wendy; Etienne, Marci A et al. (2004) Prefrontal cortex activity differentiates processes affecting memory in depression. Biol Psychol 67:125-43
Miller, G A; Chapman, J P (2001) Misunderstanding analysis of covariance. J Abnorm Psychol 110:40-8
Weber, T A; Kramer, A F; Miller, G A (1997) Selective processing of superimposed objects: an electrophysiological analysis of object-based attentional selection. Biol Psychol 45:159-82
Miller, G A (1996) How we think about cognition, emotion, and biology in psychopathology. Psychophysiology 33:615-28
Yee, C M; Miller, G A (1994) A dual-task analysis of resource allocation in dysthymia and anhedonia. J Abnorm Psychol 103:625-36
Deldin, P J; Duncan, C C; Miller, G A (1994) Season, gender, and P300. Biol Psychol 39:15-28
Giese-Davis, J E; Miller, G A; Knight, R A (1993) Memory template comparison processes in anhedonia and dysthymia. Psychophysiology 30:646-56
Klein, D N; Miller, G A (1993) Depressive personality in nonclinical subjects. Am J Psychiatry 150:1718-24
Yee, C M; Deldin, P J; Miller, G A (1992) Early stimulus processing in dysthymia and anhedonia. J Abnorm Psychol 101:230-3

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