Follow-up of N400 in the Rehabilitation of First-episode Schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: The N400 component of event-related potentials (ERP) has recently drawn widespread attention at home and abroad. This study was to explore the relationship between N400 changes and risperidone treatment and rehabilitation infirst-episode schizophrenia (FES). METHODS: ERP component N400 was recorded by Guangzhou Runjie WJ-1 ERP instruments, in 58 FES before and 6 months, 15 months after risperidone treatment, and in 62 normal controls. The patients' syndromes were assessed by Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). And the stimuli are Chinese sentences with matching (congruent) or mismatching (incongruent) ending words. RESULTS: N400 latencies were prolonged, and amplitudes were decreased in Cz, Pz, Fz, C3, C4, in FES compared with in NC, before treatment. The prolonged N400 latencies and decreased amplitudes were negatively correlated with the patients' positive scale and total scale of PANSS. There are significant differences of N400 amplitudes and latencies in 6 months and 15 months follow-up after treatment. Before treatment, 6 months and 15 months after treatment, N400 latencies are 446 ± 35 ms, 440 ± 37 ms, 414 ± 31 ms (F = 9.72, P < 0.01) in incongruent situation; N400 amplitudes are 5.2 ± 4.6 µV, 5.7 ± 4.8 µV, 7.3 ± 5.0 µV (F = 2.06, P > 0.05) in congruent situation, and 8.5 ± 5.9 µV, 10.1 ± 5.0 µV, 11.9 ± 7.0 µV (F = 3.697, P < 0.05) in incongruent situation. CONCLUSIONS: N400 could be used to predict the effects of treatment of schizophrenia to some degree. The linguistic and cognitive impairment in schizophrenia can be improved by antipsychotic drugs.

[The application of criminal responsibility rating scale for suspects with mental retardation].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the feasibility of the criminal responsibility rating scale for suspects with mental retardation. METHODS: Ninety six suspects with mental retardation were evaluated by trained professionals according to the scale, and the results were compared to the expert's opinion. RESULTS: The scores of three groups (no, diminished, and responsibility group) were 12.25 +/- 2.06, 28.62 +/- 4.57, 44.41 +/- 5.17 respectively and were significant different among them. All items had statistical correlation with the total score of the scale. Five factors were extracted by means of the factor analysis and they could explain 70.919% of the variation. The accuracy of retrospective cumulative square was 92.7%. CONCLUSION: The Criminal Responsibility Rating Scale has good reliability and validity, and can be used as a reference in assessment of criminal responsibility.

[Progress on neuropsychology and event-related potentials in patients with brain trauma].

With the development of information technology, as one of the research frontiers in neurophysiology, event-related potentials (ERP) is concerned increasingly by international scholars, which provides a feasible and objective method for exploring cognitive function. There are many advances in neuropsychology due to new assessment tool for the last years. The basic theories in the field of ERP and neuropsychology were reviewed in this article. The research and development in evaluating cognitive function of patients with syndrome after brain trauma were focused in this review, and the perspectives for the future research of ERP was also explored.

[Advanced investigation of testamentary capacity of the mentally disordered].

Testamentary capacity is one of the civil competences, it means that a natural person enjoys the capacity or qualification to establish testament and deal with his property. Recently, the cases of testamentary capacity assessment of the mentally disordered are increasing. This article firstly introduces the concepts of the testament as well as the testamentary capacity, and then summarizes the assessment standard of the testamentary capacity, by using the Banks v. Goodfellow case as a basis to make the standard criteria including: the understanding of the nature of a will and codicil, the knowledge of the general extent of one's assets, the knowledge of the natural object of one's bounty, the understanding of the impact of the distribution of the assets of the estate, and the absence of a delusion specifically affecting the distribution of the estate. The impact factors of the testamentary capacity, including dementia, mood disorder, schizophrenia, alcohol, drug, and undue influence, etc., are summarized. Lastly, the related assessment tools such as the Mini-Mental State Examination, the Clock-Drawing Test, and the Testament Definition Scale are introduced briefly.

[Civil competence assessment of the mental disorders involved in compensation of personal injury].

OBJECTIVE: To seek and ascertain indicators that can be used in the civil competence assessment of the mental disorders involved in compensation of personal injury. METHODS: A retrospective study was made on the data related to the interviewee's mental status assessed by forensic experts during the period from 2003 to 2005 in Institute of Forensic Science, Ministry of Justice, P.R.China. The 6 indicators, including awareness of situation, factual understanding of issues, appreciation of likely consequences, rational manipulation of information, functioning in one's own environment, and communication of choice, were graded and statistically analyzed using SPSS 11.5 software. RESULTS: The 6 indicators correlated well with the assessment of forensic experts ,with the related coefficient between 0.632 and 0.876, and the inter-related coefficient among the 6 indicators between 0.575 and 0.911. CONCLUSION: The 6 indicators could be used for the civil competence assessment and may also be taken as the basis for further standardization and quantification of civil competence.