Mukherjee Prerona, Whalley Heather C, McKirdy James W, Sprengelmeyer Reiner, Young Andrew W, McIntosh Andrew M, Lawrie Stephen M, Hall Jeremy
*To whom correspondence should be addressed; Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2500, US; tel: 773-916-7662, fax: 631-632-7876, e-mail:
Schizophr Bull. 2014 Jan;40(1):152-60. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbt086. Epub 2013 Jul 12.
Impairments in social cognition have been described in schizophrenia and relate to core symptoms of the disorder. Social cognition is subserved by a network of brain regions, many of which have been implicated in schizophrenia. We hypothesized that deficits in connectivity between components of this social brain network may underlie the social cognition impairments seen in the disorder.
We investigated brain activation and connectivity in a group of individuals with schizophrenia making social judgments of approachability from faces (n = 20), compared with a group of matched healthy volunteers (n = 24), using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Effective connectivity from the amygdala was estimated using the psychophysiological interaction approach.
While making approachability judgments, healthy participants recruited a network of social brain regions including amygdala, fusiform gyrus, cerebellum, and inferior frontal gyrus bilaterally and left medial prefrontal cortex. During the approachability task, healthy participants showed increased connectivity from the amygdala to the fusiform gyri, cerebellum, and left superior frontal cortex. In comparison to controls, individuals with schizophrenia overactivated the right middle frontal gyrus, superior frontal gyrus, and precuneus and had reduced connectivity between the amygdala and the insula cortex.
We report increased activation of frontal and medial parietal regions during social judgment in patients with schizophrenia, accompanied by decreased connectivity between the amygdala and insula. We suggest that the increased activation of frontal control systems and association cortex may reflect a compensatory mechanism for impaired connectivity of the amygdala with other parts of the social brain networks in schizophrenia.
精神分裂症患者存在社会认知障碍，且与该疾病的核心症状相关。社会认知由一个脑区网络支持，其中许多脑区都与精神分裂症有关。我们推测，这个社会脑网络各组成部分之间连接性的缺陷可能是该疾病中社会认知障碍的基础。
我们使用功能磁共振成像，对一组根据面部判断可接近性的精神分裂症患者（n = 20）和一组匹配的健康志愿者（n = 24）进行了脑激活和连接性研究。使用心理生理交互作用方法估计杏仁核的有效连接性。
在做出可接近性判断时，健康参与者激活了一个社会脑区网络，包括杏仁核、梭状回、小脑以及双侧额下回和左侧内侧前额叶皮质。在可接近性任务期间，健康参与者显示出从杏仁核到梭状回、小脑和左侧额上回的连接性增加。与对照组相比，精神分裂症患者右侧额中回、额上回和楔前叶过度激活，杏仁核与岛叶皮质之间的连接性降低。
我们报告了精神分裂症患者在社会判断过程中额叶和内侧顶叶区域的激活增加，同时杏仁核与岛叶之间的连接性降低。我们认为，额叶控制系统和联合皮质激活增加可能反映了精神分裂症中杏仁核与社会脑网络其他部分连接受损的一种代偿机制。
