Ye Jun-Yan, Qin Xiao-Jing, Cui Ji-Fang, Shi Hai-Song, Liu Jia-Li, Huang Jia, Wang Yi, Yang Tian-Xiao, Lui Simon S Y, Wang Ya, Chan Raymond C K
Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China.
Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2023 Jun 8;124:110734. doi: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2023.110734. Epub 2023 Feb 14.
Mental time travel (MTT) is the ability to re-experience past events (autobiographic memory, AM) and pre-experience possible future events (episodic future thinking, EFT) through mental simulation. Empirical findings suggest that individuals with high level of schizotypy exhibit MTT impairment. However, the neural correlates of this impairment remain unclear.
Thirty-eight individuals with high level of schizotypy and 35 low level of schizotypy were recruited to complete an MTT imaging paradigm. Participants were required to recall past events (AM condition), imagine possible future events (EFT condition) related to cue words, or generate exemplars related to category words (control condition) while undergoing functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).
AM showed greater activation in precuneus, bilateral posterior cingulate cortex, thalamus, and middle frontal gyrus than EFT. Individuals with high level of schizotypy exhibited reduced activation in the left anterior cingulate cortex during AM (vs. Control) and in the medial frontal gyrus during EFT (vs. Control) compared to individuals with low level of schizotypy. Although psychophysiological interaction analyses did not show any significant group difference, individuals with high level of schizotypy exhibited functional connectivity between left anterior cingulate cortex (seed) and right thalamus, between medial frontal gyrus (seed) and left cerebellum during MTT, whereas individuals with low level of schizotypy did not exhibit these functional connectivities.
These findings suggest that decreased brain activations may underlie MTT deficits in individuals with high level of schizotypy.
心理时间旅行（MTT）是一种通过心理模拟重新体验过去事件（自传体记忆，AM）和预体验可能的未来事件（情景未来思维，EFT）的能力。实证研究结果表明，精神分裂症倾向水平较高的个体表现出心理时间旅行障碍。然而，这种障碍的神经关联尚不清楚。
招募了38名精神分裂症倾向水平较高的个体和35名精神分裂症倾向水平较低的个体，以完成心理时间旅行成像范式。参与者在进行功能磁共振成像（fMRI）时，被要求回忆过去事件（AM条件）、想象与提示词相关的可能未来事件（EFT条件）或生成与类别词相关的示例（对照条件）。
与EFT相比，AM在前楔叶、双侧后扣带回皮质、丘脑和额中回显示出更大的激活。与精神分裂症倾向水平较低的个体相比，精神分裂症倾向水平较高的个体在AM期间（与对照相比）左前扣带回皮质激活减少，在EFT期间（与对照相比）内侧额回激活减少。尽管心理生理交互分析未显示任何显著的组间差异，但精神分裂症倾向水平较高的个体在心理时间旅行期间，左前扣带回皮质（种子区）与右丘脑之间、内侧额回（种子区）与左小脑之间表现出功能连接，而精神分裂症倾向水平较低的个体未表现出这些功能连接。
这些发现表明，大脑激活减少可能是精神分裂症倾向水平较高个体心理时间旅行缺陷的基础。
