Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2021 Dec;6(12):1202-1214. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2020.11.014. Epub 2020 Dec 5.
Schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) feature social cognitive deficits, although their neural basis remains unclear. Social cognitive performance may relate to neural circuit activation patterns more than to diagnosis, which would have important prognostic and therapeutic implications. The current study aimed to determine how functional connectivity within and between social cognitive networks relates to social cognitive performance across individuals with SSDs and healthy control participants.
Participants with SSDs (n = 164) and healthy control participants (n = 117) completed the Empathic Accuracy task during functional magnetic resonance imaging as well as lower-level (e.g., emotion recognition) and higher-level (e.g., theory of mind) social cognitive measures outside the scanner. Functional connectivity during the Empathic Accuracy task was analyzed using background connectivity and graph theory. Data-driven social cognitive networks were identified across participants. Regression analyses were used to examine network connectivity-performance relationships across individuals. Positive and negative within- and between-network connectivity strengths were also compared in poor versus good social cognitive performers and in SSD versus control groups.
Three social cognitive networks were identified: motor resonance, affect sharing, and mentalizing. Regression and group-based analyses demonstrated reduced between-network negative connectivity, or segregation, and greater within- and between-network positive connectivity in worse social cognitive performers. There were no significant effects of diagnostic group on within- or between-network connectivity.
These findings suggest that the neural circuitry of social cognitive performance may exist dimensionally. Across participants, better social cognitive performance was associated with greater segregation between social cognitive networks, whereas poor versus good performers may compensate via hyperconnectivity within and between social cognitive networks.
精神分裂谱系障碍（SSDs）的特征是社会认知缺陷，尽管其神经基础仍不清楚。社会认知表现可能与神经回路激活模式的关系比与诊断的关系更密切，这将具有重要的预后和治疗意义。本研究旨在确定 SSD 患者和健康对照组个体之间的社会认知网络内和网络间的功能连接如何与社会认知表现相关。
164 名 SSD 患者（n=164）和 117 名健康对照组参与者（n=117）在功能磁共振成像期间完成了同理心准确性任务，以及在扫描仪外进行了较低层次（例如，情绪识别）和较高层次（例如，心理理论）的社会认知测量。使用背景连通性和图论分析同理心准确性任务期间的功能连接。跨参与者确定数据驱动的社会认知网络。使用回归分析检查个体间的网络连接-表现关系。还比较了较差的社会认知表现者与较好的社会认知表现者以及 SSD 组与对照组之间的正负内网络和网络间连接强度。
确定了三个社会认知网络：运动共鸣、情感共享和心理化。回归和基于组的分析表明，在较差的社会认知表现者中，网络间负连接减少，或分离，以及内和网络间正连接增加。在网络内和网络间连接方面，诊断组之间没有显著差异。
这些发现表明，社会认知表现的神经回路可能具有维度性。在跨参与者中，更好的社会认知表现与社会认知网络之间更大的分离有关，而较差的表现者可能通过社会认知网络内和网络间的超连接来补偿。
