In search of neural mechanisms of mirror neuron dysfunction in schizophrenia: resting state functional connectivity approach.

It has been repeatedly shown that schizophrenia patients have immense alterations in goal-directed behaviour, social cognition, and social interactions, cognitive abilities that are presumably driven by the mirror neurons system (MNS). However, the neural bases of these deficits still remain unclear. Along with the task-related fMRI and EEG research tapping into the mirror neuron system, the characteristics of the resting state activity in the particular areas that encompass mirror neurons might be of interest as they obviously determine the baseline of the neuronal activity. Using resting state fMRI, we investigated resting state functional connectivity (FC) in four predefined brain structures, ROIs (inferior frontal gyrus, superior parietal lobule, premotor cortex and superior temporal gyrus), known for their mirror neurons activity, in 12 patients with first psychotic episode and 12 matched healthy individuals. As a specific hypothesis, based on the knowledge of the anatomical inputs of thalamus to all preselected ROIs, we have investigated the FC between thalamus and the ROIs. Of all ROIs included, seed-to-voxel connectivity analysis revealed significantly decreased FC only in left posterior superior temporal gyrus (STG) and the areas in visual cortex and cerebellum in patients as compared to controls. Using ROI-to-ROI analysis (thalamus and selected ROIs), we have found an increased FC of STG and bilateral thalamus whereas the FC of these areas was decreased in controls. Our results suggest that: (1) schizophrenia patients exhibit FC of STG which corresponds to the previously reported changes of superior temporal gyrus in schizophrenia and might contribute to the disturbances of specific functions, such as emotional processing or spatial awareness; (2) as the thalamus plays a pivotal role in the sensory gating, providing the filtering of the redundant stimulation, the observed hyperconnectivity between the thalami and the STGs in patients with schizophrenia might explain the sequential overload with sensory inputs that leads to the abnormal cognitive processing.