From Semantic to Social Deficits: Dysfunction of the Nondominant Posterior Perisylvian Area in Schizophrenia

Abstract

Schizophrenia is characterized by profound deficits in social competence and functioning, independent from active psychotic symptoms at different stages of the disease. Social deficits in schizophrenia are clinically well characterized, but their neurobiological underpinnings are undetermined. This article reviews recent evidence supporting heritable deficits in a circuit necessary for appropriate naming of emotions and mental states in others, centered at the temporoparietal junction of the nondominant hemisphere. The clinical implications of this model are discussed, including the potential use of rehabilitation techniques oriented to recognition and naming of emotions and mental states as a necessary step for social rehabilitation.

Brain activation induced by psychological stress in nonpsychotic siblings of patients with schizophrenia

“…Finally, we found lack of a relationship between left amygdala activation and stress perception, as was evident in the present group of healthy individuals, in accordance with previous data suggesting that left amygdala activity depends on salience of psychosocial stimuli [8]. Thus, our prediction of lack of dominant activation of right limbic structures during stress was confirmed in this study, in accordance with previous findings by our group and others in siblings discordant for schizophrenia challenged with social cognitive tasks [10,16,42,18].…”

Intensity of repetitive negative thinking in depression is associated with greater functional connectivity between semantic processing and emotion regulation areas

“…Our observation of altered functional connectivity in the right STS as well as the left STS in high RNT individuals provides additional support to this view. Moreover, it has been proposed that dialogic inner speech could draw on ToM capacities, requiring not just the representation of a voice but also the sense and intention of a plausible and realistic interlocutor; activity in the right STS was evident during both dialogic scenarios and ToM reasoning (Carrington & Bailey, 2009), and this region is a major component of the 'social brain' (Blakemore, 2008;Guinjoan, de Achaval, Villarreal, Abusamra, & Nemeroff, 2015;Kennedy & Adolphs, 2012). Together with other regions in the temporal lobe (e.g.…”

À propos de la modélisation cognitive de la schizophrénie : « De Frith à nos jours, actualisations ou nouveaux paradigmes ? ». Une revue de littérature systématique.

“…Des nombreux troubles du langage sont décrits chez les patients schizophrènes, notamment des déficits en vocabulaire (4,56,63,70,71,74).…”

“…Il existerait un lien entre les déficits de mémoire verbale et les déficits sociaux des patients (4,55,56,70,71,74).…”