Neural activity during object perception in schizophrenia patients is associated with illness duration and affective symptoms

Abstract

Background: Abnormalities in visual processes have been observed in schizophrenia patients and have been associated with alteration of the lateral occipital complex and visual cortex. However, the relationship of these abnormalities with clinical symptomatology is largely unknown. Methods: We investigated the brain activity associated with object perception in schizophrenia. Pictures of common objects were presented to 26 healthy participants (age = 36.9; 11 females) and 20 schizophrenia patients (age = 39.9; 8 females) in an fMRI study. Results: In the healthy sample the presentation of pictures yielded significant activation (p <.001) of the bilateral fusiform gyrus, bilateral lingual gyrus, and bilateral middle occipital gyrus. In patients, the bilateral fusiform gyrus and bilateral lingual gyrus were significantly activated (p <.001), but not so the middle occipital gyrus. However, significant bilateral activation of the middle occipital gyrus (p <.05) was revealed when illness duration was controlled for. Depression was significantly associated with increased activation, and anxiety with decreased activation, of the right middle occipital gyrus and several other brain areas in the patient group. No association with positive or negative symptoms was revealed. Conclusions:Illness duration accounts for the weak activation of the middle occipital gyrus in patients during picture presentation. Affective symptoms, but not positive or negative symptoms, influence the activation of the right middle occipital gyrus and other brain areas.

Global brain asymmetry is increased in schizophrenia and related to avolition

“…This hypothetical gray matter symmetry increase in the prefrontal cortex would also explain why patients with anxiety symptoms show similar gray matter Dice coefficients as healthy control participants. Consistent with our findings, other studies have found anxiety and depression, which might be related to avolition, to have opposite effects on brain activation during an object perception task . Overall, these results suggest that avolition and anxiety may be partly explained by differences in global gray matter asymmetry, and they underline the importance of considering not only the negative but also the affective symptoms in the pathology of schizophrenia .…”

“…Differences in the left–right sulcal asymmetry between patients with and without visual hallucinations have also been found . Studies examining potential associations between cerebral asymmetry and negative or affective symptoms are scarce, although these symptoms have been shown to have important clinical and cognitive effects in schizophrenia. Even though results are inconclusive, it seems that both negative symptoms and depression are associated with loss of asymmetry .…”

Quantitative and Qualitative Comparison of EEG-Based Neural Network Organization in Two Schizophrenia Groups Differing in the Duration of Illness and Disease Burden: Graph Analysis With Application of the Minimum Spanning Tree

“…For each patient, 25 visual artifact-free and eyes closed (inspected by a clinical neurophysiologist) epochs of 4096 samples (8 seconds) were selected. The selected epoch has a band-pass filtered into the frequencies: delta (0.5-4 Hz), theta (4-8 Hz), lower alpha (8-10 Hz), upper alpha (10-12 Hz), beta (13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30), and gamma (30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45). Because of the fact that different frequency ranges in alpha band are involved in different cognitive processes, 14 the alpha band was divided into 2 frequency bands.…”

“…38,39 Volumetric changes presented in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies showed a connection between the progression of schizophrenia and decreased volume of gray matter from the thalamus to the frontal lobe 40 ; additionally, longitudinal studies also reported progressive gray matter reduction in frontal and temporal brain areas, during particular stages of the illness. 41,42 Apart from anatomical studies, the results of functional investigations with functional MRI, both with brain activity elicited by a cognitive task and in resting-state (r-s) conditions, suggested that there might be a relationship between illness duration and interhemispheric symmetry, 43 bilateral activation of the middle occipital gyrus, 44 and the connectivity between posterior temporal cortex and medial prefrontal area. 45 The main goal of this cross-sectional study is to compare the cortical functional network in 2 SZ groups differing in the duration of illness and other factors associated with prolonged mental illness.…”

Mechanism of Cerebralcare Granule® for Improving Cognitive Function in Resting-State Brain Functional Networks of Sub-healthy Subjects

“…Similarly, some researchers have demonstrated that the basal ganglia including the caudate nucleus and pallidum is an important area for a variety of cognitive functions, and focal lesions of this area induce explicit memory deficits (Seger, 2006; Moon et al, 2015). Moreover, the CUN.L (Mochizuki et al, 2014; Li et al, 2016), and MOG.R (Stephan-Otto et al, 2016; Yin et al, 2016) have also been associated with cognition.…”