The relationship between performance in a theory of mind task and intrinsic functional connectivity in youth with early onset psychosis

A Review of Default Mode Network Connectivity and Its Association With Social Cognition in Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Early-Onset Psychosis

“…Ten out of 14 studies reviewed here examined the relationship between DMN connectivity and symptom severity on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), a widely used measure in schizophrenia (130). Out of these, four studies did not find any significant associations between DMN connectivity patterns and PANSS scores (89,112,115,116). However, results from six out of 10 studies that found significant relationships between DMN connectivity and the PANSS revealed that aberrant within-DMN connectivity (105,108,110) as well as disrupted connectivity between DMN and other brain regions (106,107,114) in EOP tended to be more strongly associated with PANSS negative symptoms scores rather than positive symptom scores.…”

“…Studies of youth with EOP receiving anti-psychotic medication mostly showed overconnectivity relative to healthy controls within the DMN (105,109), as well as increased co-activation between DMN and prefrontal cognitive control regions (109) with only one study reporting underconnectivity within the DMN (116). It is therefore tempting to speculate that prior to the introduction of anti-psychotic medication the DMN tends to be underconnected or mixed in its connectivity patterns, with changes occurring in the pattern of connectivity after implementation of a medication regimen or as the course of the disease progresses.…”

“…However, results from six out of 10 studies that found significant relationships between DMN connectivity and the PANSS revealed that aberrant within-DMN connectivity (105,108,110) as well as disrupted connectivity between DMN and other brain regions (106,107,114) in EOP tended to be more strongly associated with PANSS negative symptoms scores rather than positive symptom scores. Lastly, one recent study found that within-DMN underconnectivity accounted for~16% of the variance in ToM performance measured by the RMET in adolescents with EOP treated with anti-psychotics (116). This suggests that the DMN may have a more crucial role in the social impairments observed in adolescents with EOP, rather than positive symptoms such as unusual thought content or perceptual disturbances.…”

“…Another reason could be the absence of a priori hypotheses about the association between DMN connectivity and social functioning. Only two ASD studies (82,88) and one EOP study (116) used the RMET to measure social cognition in these clinical populations. Notably, all three studies found a significant inverse association between intra-DMN connectivity and RMET performance in both patient groups (i.e., less intra-DMN connectivity was associated with poorer task performance).…”

A review of default mode network connectivity and its association with social cognition in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder and early-onset psychosis

“…Of these, the majority (eight out of 11) appear to report on the same (or at least, largely overlapping) cohort (Zhang et al, 2015;Zheng et al, 2016;Wang et al, 2017a;Liu et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2018a;Wang et al, 2018b;Wang et al, 2019b;Zhang et al, 2020). Other EOP studies (three out of 14) have involved independent cohorts of adolescents with recent-onset psychotic disorder receiving anti-psychotic treatment (Tang et al, 2013;Cui et al, 2017;Ilzarbe et al, 2019). Collectively, results suggest a mixed pattern of under-and over-connectivity involving the DMN, similar to that observed in adults with schizophrenia (Hu et al, 2017) and regardless of analytic method or cohort used (see Table 4 for main results from each study).…”