Yan Zhimin, Schmidt Stephanie N L, Frank Josef, Witt Stephanie H, Hass Joachim, Kirsch Peter, Mier Daniela
Department of Clinical Psychology, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany.
Department of Psychology, University Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
Neuropsychopharmacology. 2020 Jul;45(8):1346-1352. doi: 10.1038/s41386-020-0637-8. Epub 2020 Feb 14.
Deficits in social cognition have been proposed as a marker of schizophrenia. Growing evidence suggests especially hyperfunctioning of the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) in response to neutral social stimuli reflecting the neural correlates of social-cognitive impairments in schizophrenia. We characterized healthy participants according to schizotypy (n = 74) and the single-nucleotide polymorphism rs1344706 in ZNF804A (n = 73), as they represent risk variants for schizophrenia from the perspectives of personality traits and genetics, respectively. A social-cognitive fMRI task was applied to investigate the association of right pSTS hyperfunctioning in response to neutral face stimuli with schizotypy and rs1344706. Higher right pSTS activation in response to neutral facial expressions was found in individuals with increased positive (trend) and disorganization symptoms, as well as in carriers of the risk allele of rs1344706. In addition, a positive association between right-left pSTS connectivity and disorganization symptoms during neutral face processing was revealed. Although these findings warrant replication, we suggest that right pSTS hyperfunctioning in response to neutral facial expressions presents an endophenotype of schizophrenia. We assume that right pSTS hyperfunctioning is a vulnerability to perceive neutral social stimuli as emotionally or intentionally salient, probably contributing to the emergence of symptoms of schizophrenia.
社会认知缺陷已被提出作为精神分裂症的一个标志。越来越多的证据表明，尤其是右侧后颞上沟（pSTS）在对中性社会刺激做出反应时功能亢进，这反映了精神分裂症社会认知障碍的神经相关性。我们根据精神分裂症型人格（n = 74）和ZNF804A基因中的单核苷酸多态性rs1344706（n = 73）对健康参与者进行了特征描述，因为它们分别从人格特质和遗传学角度代表了精神分裂症的风险变异。应用一项社会认知功能磁共振成像任务来研究右侧pSTS在对中性面部刺激做出反应时功能亢进与精神分裂症型人格及rs1344706之间的关联。在具有增加的阳性（趋势）和紊乱症状的个体以及rs1344706风险等位基因携带者中，发现对中性面部表情的右侧pSTS激活更高。此外，在中性面部处理过程中，揭示了右侧与左侧pSTS连接性与紊乱症状之间的正相关。尽管这些发现有待重复验证，但我们认为对中性面部表情的右侧pSTS功能亢进是精神分裂症的一种内表型。我们假设右侧pSTS功能亢进是一种将中性社会刺激视为在情感上或意图上显著的易感性，这可能促成了精神分裂症症状的出现。
