Gao Jie, Zhang Dongsheng, Wang Lei, Wang Wei, Fan Yajuan, Tang Min, Zhang Xin, Lei Xiaoyan, Wang Yarong, Yang Jian, Zhang Xiaoling
Department of MRI, Shaanxi Provincial People's Hospital, Xi'an, China.
Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
Front Psychiatry. 2020 Jun 24;11:575. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00575. eCollection 2020.
Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) are among the most common and prominent symptoms of schizophrenia. Although abnormal functional connectivity associated with AVH has been reported in multiple regions, the changes in information flow remain unclear. In this study, we aimed to elucidate causal influences related to AVH in key regions of auditory, language, and memory networks, by using Granger causality analysis (GCA).
Eighteen patients with schizophrenia with AVH and eighteen matched patients without AVH who received resting-state fMRI scans were enrolled in the study. The bilateral superior temporal gyrus (STG), Broca's area, Wernicke's area, putamen, and hippocampus were selected as regions of interest.
Granger causality (GC) increased from Broca's area to the left STG, and decreased from the right homolog of Wernicke's area to the right homolog of Broca's area, and from the right STG to the right hippocampus in the AVH group compared with the non-AVH group. Correlation analysis showed that the normalized GC ratios from the left STG to Broca's area, from the left STG to the right homolog of Broca's area, and from the right STG to the right homolog of Broca's area were negatively correlated with severity of AVH, and the normalized GC ratios from Broca's area to the left hippocampus and from Broca's area to the right STG were positively correlated with severity of AVH.
Our findings indicate a causal influence of pivotal regions involving the auditory, language, and memory networks in schizophrenia with AVH, which provide a deeper understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying AVH.
幻听是精神分裂症最常见且突出的症状之一。尽管已报道多个区域存在与幻听相关的异常功能连接，但信息流的变化仍不明确。在本研究中，我们旨在通过格兰杰因果分析（GCA）阐明听觉、语言和记忆网络关键区域中与幻听相关的因果影响。
本研究纳入了18名有幻听的精神分裂症患者和18名匹配的无幻听患者，他们均接受了静息态功能磁共振成像扫描。双侧颞上回（STG）、布洛卡区、韦尼克区、壳核和海马被选为感兴趣区域。
与无幻听组相比，幻听组中从布洛卡区到左侧STG的格兰杰因果关系（GC）增加，从韦尼克区右侧同系物到布洛卡区右侧同系物以及从右侧STG到右侧海马的GC减少。相关性分析表明，从左侧STG到布洛卡区、从左侧STG到布洛卡区右侧同系物以及从右侧STG到布洛卡区右侧同系物的标准化GC比率与幻听严重程度呈负相关，而从布洛卡区到左侧海马以及从布洛卡区到右侧STG的标准化GC比率与幻听严重程度呈正相关。
我们的研究结果表明，在伴有幻听的精神分裂症中，涉及听觉、语言和记忆网络的关键区域存在因果影响，这为深入理解幻听背后的神经机制提供了依据。
