Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK.
World J Biol Psychiatry. 2013 Feb;14(1):57-70. doi: 10.3109/15622975.2011.604101. Epub 2011 Sep 22.
OBJECTIVES. High negative expressed emotion by family members towards schizophrenia patients increases the risk of subsequent relapse. The study aimed to determine whether individuals with high schizotypy (HS) and low schizotypy (LS) would differ in activation of brain areas involved in cognitive control when listening to relative criticism. METHODS. Twelve HS and 12 LS individuals listened to relative's critical, positive and neutral comments about them while undergoing functional MRI. Activation maps in the two groups during the comments were compared using SPM5. RESULTS. The left superior frontal and middle frontal gyri and bilateral posterior cingulate cortex were activated during criticism, compared to neutral comments, across all participants. While there were no group differences in brain activity for criticism versus neutral comments, the HS group, who had lower current mood relative to the LS group, activated to a lesser extent the thalamus, insula, putamen and brain stem during positive, compared to neutral, comments. CONCLUSIONS. Listening to relative criticism in healthy individuals engages brain areas for cognitive control of negative emotion and self-referential processing. However, HS individuals may have an attenuated ability to respond to rewarding aspects of positive comments due to their lower current mood.
家庭成员对精神分裂症患者表现出的高度负面情绪会增加疾病复发的风险。本研究旨在确定高精神分裂症倾向（HS）和低精神分裂症倾向（LS）个体在听到亲属批评时，大脑中参与认知控制的区域是否会有不同的激活。
12 名 HS 个体和 12 名 LS 个体在进行功能磁共振成像时，分别听取亲属对他们的批评、积极和中性评论。使用 SPM5 比较两组在评论期间的激活图谱。
与中性评论相比，所有参与者在听到批评时，左侧额上回和额中回以及双侧后扣带回皮层都被激活。虽然 HS 组的当前情绪相对于 LS 组较低，但在听到积极评论时，与中性评论相比，丘脑、脑岛、壳核和脑干的激活程度较低，而两组在批评与中性评论的大脑活动方面没有差异。
在健康个体中，听到亲属的批评会激活大脑区域，以控制消极情绪和自我参照加工的认知控制。然而，由于当前情绪较低，HS 个体可能对积极评论的奖励方面的反应能力减弱。
