Cognitive dysfunction and cortical structural abnormalities in first-episode drug-naïve schizophrenia patients with auditory verbal hallucination

Abstract

ObjectiveThe current study aimed to examine the cognitive profiles and cortical structural alterations in first-episode drug-naïve schizophrenia with AVH (auditory verbal hallucination).MethodsCortical structural parameters including cortical thickness and local gyrification index (LGI) estimated using FreeSurfer as well as cognitive performance assessed on the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) were acquired from 78 schizophrenia patients with AVH, 74 schizophrenia patients without AVH (non-AVH), and 76 healthy controls (HC). Hoffman Auditory Hallucination Rating Scale (HAHRS) was applied to assess the severity of AVH.ResultsThe results revealed extensive deficits in all cognitive domains among AVH, non-AVH, and HC groups. Compared to non-AVH group, the AVH group showed poorer performance on visual learning and verbal learning domains. There were six brain regions with cortical thinning in the right hemisphere of inferior temporal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, lateral orbito frontal cortex, rostral anterior cingulate cortex, supramarginal gyrus and insula, and two brain regions with increased LGI in the left hemisphere of superior parietal gyrus and the right hemisphere of caudal anterior cingulate cortex on AVH group relative to non-AVH group. Correlation analysis revealed that the cortical thickness in the right hemisphere of lateral orbito frontal cortex was negatively correlated with the severity of AVH in schizophrenia patients with AVH.ConclusionVisual learning, verbal learning dysfunction, and specific disruption of cortical structure may characterize schizophrenia patients with AVH during early stages of the disorder. Right lateral orbito frontal cortical deficits may be the pathological mechanisms underlying AVH in first-episode drug-naïve schizophrenia.

Core of sensory gating deficits in first-episode schizophrenia: attention dysfunction

“…Specifically, our study found a large effect size for impaired working memory and attentional vigilance in UMFE patients compared to healthy controls. Interestingly, no deficits in social cognition were observed in this group, which contradicts the findings of most earlier studies ( 34 , 36 , 37 ). For example, Pablo et al ( 38 ) reported that both first-episode and chronic schizophrenia were associated with social cognition deficits.…”

Neuroimaging alterations and relapse in early-stage psychosis

“…Among these, we pay particular attention to the superior parietal gyrus in conjunction with the thalamus because of its implication in several cognitive domains in association with the role of the prefrontal cortex among patients with schizophrenia. [44][45][46]…”

Longitudinal trajectories of anterior cingulate glutamate and subclinical psychotic experiences in early adolescence: the impact of bullying victimization

“…We thought that the ventral (pregenual) ACC was a better region to focus on compared to the dorsal ACC to test our hypotheses. This was because both being bullied and having psychotic experiences, especially the former, are related to emotional dysregulation [ 22 , 70 ], and because several previous neuroimaging studies reported the roles of the ventral ACC both in psychosis [ 71 – 73 ] and in emotional social stress [ 74 – 76 ]. Thus, in this study, we explored the association of pregenual ACC glutamate levels with subclinical psychotic experiences over time using a two-time-point longitudinal dataset with more than 200 adolescents recruited from the Tokyo TEEN Cohort (TTC) study [ 77 , 78 ].…”