Ventral medial prefrontal functional connectivity and emotion regulation in chronic schizophrenia: A pilot study

Abstract

People with schizophrenia exhibit impaired social cognitive functions, particularly emotion regulation. Abnormal activations of the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) during emotional tasks have been demonstrated in schizophrenia, suggesting its important role in emotion processing in patients. We used the resting-state functional connectivity approach, setting a functionally relevant region, the vMPFC, as a seed region to examine the intrinsic functional interactions and communication between the vMPFC and other brain regions in schizophrenic patients. We found hypo-connectivity between the vMPFC and the medial frontal cortex, right middle temporal lobe (MTL), right hippocampus, parahippocampal cortex (PHC) and amygdala. Further, there was a decreased strength of the negative connectivity (or anticorrelation) between the vMPFC and the bilateral dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and pre-supplementary motor areas. Among these connectivity alterations, reduced vMPFC-DLPFC connectivity was positively correlated with positive symptoms on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, while vMPFC-right MTL/PHC/amygdala functional connectivity was positively correlated with the performance of emotional regulation in patients. These findings imply that communication and coordination throughout the brain networks are disrupted in schizophrenia. The emotional correlates of vMPFC connectivity suggest a role of the hypo-connectivity between these regions in the neuropathology of abnormal social cognition in chronic schizophrenia.

Amygdala Connectivity Differs Among Chronic, Early Course, and Individuals at Risk for Developing Schizophrenia

“…49,50 Additional studies identify amygdala as a source of local circuit impairment in schizophrenia. 18,[51][52][53] Importantly, the current study did not identify a distributed global impairment of amygdala functional connectivity in schizophrenia across widespread cortical regions, as one may have predicted if amygdalar function with distributed cortical systems was grossly abnormal. Therefore, the current data suggest that the primary abnormality in symptomatic patients may occur in amygdala-OFC connectivity, in line with meta-analyses suggesting possible subtle alterations in amygdala activation in schizophrenia.…”

Prefrontal cortex and the dysconnectivity hypothesis of schizophrenia

“…For example, contrary to hyperconnectivity, a study using an ROI in the ventral MPFC showed decreased resting-state FC between the ventral MPFC and the default mode network regions (such as the anterior MPFC, right middle temporal lobe, hippocampus, parahippocampus, and amygdala) in chronic schizophrenic patients. And the decreased FC between the ventral MPFC and right medial-temporal regions has been correlated with the poorer regulation of emotion [75] .…”

Involvement of Neuroinflammation during Brain Development in Social Cognitive Deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Schizophrenia

“…Schizophrenia patients show hyperactivation of the amygdala and underconnectivity of the VMPFC-amygdala pathway (Fan et al, 2013;Pankow et al, 2013). Therefore, it is probable that in schizophrenia, like ASD, increased activity in the amygdala caused by hippocampal hyperactivation induces desensitization and dysregulation of the VMPFC.…”