Neural Correlates of Variation in Personal Space and Social Functioning in Schizophrenia and Healthy Individuals

Abstract

Background Changes in the regulation of interpersonal distance, or “personal space” (PS), have been repeatedly observed in schizophrenia and, in some studies, linked to negative symptoms. However, the neurobiological basis of these impairments is poorly understood. Methods Personal space measurements, functional connectivity of a brain network sensitive to intrusions into PS, and symptoms of social withdrawal and anhedonia were assessed, and associations among these outcomes measured, in 33 individuals with a psychotic disorder (primarily schizophrenia [SCZ]) and 36 control subjects (CON). Results Personal space size was significantly higher (P = .002) and PS permeability (reflecting the capacity to tolerate intrusions into PS) was significantly lower (P = .021) in the SCZ relative to the CON group, and both measures were significantly correlated with social anhedonia and withdrawal in the full sample (all P < .007). Moreover, functional connectivity between the PS and default mode (DM) networks was significantly correlated with the permeability, but not the size, of PS in the full sample and in the SCZ and CON groups separately, and with social withdrawal in the SCZ group. Lastly, the association between PS-DM network connectivity and social withdrawal in the SCZ group was fully mediated by PS permeability. Discussion Neural and behavioral aspects of PS regulation are linked to social motivation in both healthy individuals and those with psychotic disorders, suggesting that measurements of PS could serve as transdiagnostic markers of social functioning.

Interdigitated Columnar Representation of Personal Space and Visual Space in Human Parietal Cortex

“…Abnormalities in personal space regulation have been observed in several neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia (Horowitz et al, 1964;Duke and Mullens, 1973;Srivastava and Mandal, 1990;Nechamkin et al, 2003;Park et al, 2009;De La Asuncion et al, 2015;Holt et al, 2015;Zapetis et al, 2022) and autism (Gessaroli et al, 2013;Kennedy and Adolphs, 2014;Lough et al, 2015;Perry et al, 2015;Asada et al, 2016;Candini et al, 2017;Noel et al, 2017;Mul et al, 2019). Given our findings, it is possible that early changes in the organization of the parietal cortex (perhaps including column-scale effects) are associated with the abnormalities in personal space regulation observed in these neurodevelopmental conditions.…”

Altered brain morphology and functional connectivity in postmenopausal women: automatic segmentation of whole-brain and thalamic subnuclei and resting-state fMRI

“…Preprocessing of resting-state fMRI data was conducted using FS-FAST (the FreeSurfer Functional Analysis Stream) [ 30 , 33 ]. First, functional data were realigned to correct for rigid head motion and corrected for slice time correction.…”

Personal space increases during the COVID-19 pandemic in response to real and virtual humans

“…In addition, individuals who had experienced some impairments in these domains or who had not yet fully developed these skills (e.g., children) before the pandemic may find this period of recovery (or transition to an endemic phase of the pandemic) particularly challenging. Personal space abnormalities have been observed in autism ( Kennedy and Adolphs, 2014 ; Asada et al, 2016 ), schizophrenia ( Park et al, 2009 ; Holt et al, 2015 ; Schoretsanitis et al, 2016 ; Lee et al, 2021 ; Zapetis et al, 2022 ), and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ( Bogović et al, 2016 ) and have been linked to loneliness ( Layden et al, 2018 ), anxiety ( Iachini et al, 2015 ) and social functioning impairments ( Nechamkin et al, 2003 ; Holt et al, 2015 ; Zapetis et al, 2022 ). Thus, persistently impaired regulation of personal space in certain individuals could indicate a need for further evaluation, close monitoring or therapeutic intervention.…”

“…Although personal space-related behaviors have been linked to the function of the network of parietal and frontal cortical brain regions involved in monitoring the space near the body ( Graziano and Cooke, 2006 ; Huang et al, 2012 ; Cléry et al, 2015 ; di Pellegrino and Làdavas, 2015 ), it is not known whether the function or structure of this network has been altered in parallel with changes in personal space-related behaviors during the pandemic. Given that the functional connectivity of this network ( Holt et al, 2014 ; Zapetis et al, 2022 ) and variability in its responses ( Ferri et al, 2015 ) have been linked to individual differences in personal space preferences, it is possible that changes in this circuit may have accompanied habitual enlargements in personal space during the pandemic. If such changes are persistent, longitudinal neuroimaging studies may be able to detect them and potentially shed light on some of the mechanisms underlying the plasticity of personal space regulation.…”