Vinke Louis N, Avanaki Mona, Jeffrey Clayton, Harikumar Amritha, Mow Jessica L, Tootell Roger B H, DeTore Nicole R, Holt Daphne J
Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Mol Psychiatry. 2025 Feb 3. doi: 10.1038/s41380-025-02906-4.
Regulation of interpersonal distance or "personal space" (PS; the space near the body into which others cannot intrude without eliciting discomfort) is a largely unconscious channel of non-verbal social communication used by many species including humans. PS abnormalities have been observed in neuropsychiatric illnesses, including schizophrenia. However, the neurophysiological basis of these abnormalities remains unknown. To investigate this question, in this study, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were collected while individuals with psychotic disorders (PD; n = 37) and demographically-matched healthy control (HC) subjects (n = 60) viewed images of faces moving towards or away from them. Responses of a frontoparietal-subcortical network of brain regions were measured to the approaching versus the withdrawing face stimuli, and resting-state fMRI data were also collected. PS size was measured using the classical Stop Distance Procedure. As expected, the PD group demonstrated a significantly larger PS compared to the HC group (P = 0.002). In both groups, a network of parietal and frontal cortical regions showed greater approach-biased responses, whereas subcortical areas (the striatum, amygdala and hippocampus) showed greater withdrawal-biased responses. Moreover, within the PD (but not the HC) group, approach-biased activation of the inferior parietal cortex (IPC) and functional connectivity between the IPC and the ventral/limbic striatum were significantly correlated with PS size. This study provides evidence that PS abnormalities in psychotic illness involve disrupted function and connectivity of the PS network. Such brain-behavior relationships may serve as objective treatment targets for novel interventions for schizophrenia and related psychotic illnesses.
人际距离或“个人空间”(PS;身体附近的空间,他人未经允许进入会引起不适)的调节是包括人类在内的许多物种在非语言社交沟通中广泛使用的一种基本无意识的渠道。在包括精神分裂症在内的神经精神疾病中已观察到个人空间异常。然而,这些异常的神经生理基础仍然未知。为了研究这个问题,在本研究中,当患有精神障碍(PD;n = 37)和人口统计学匹配的健康对照(HC)受试者(n = 60)观看面部朝向或远离他们移动的图像时,收集了功能磁共振成像(fMRI)数据。测量了大脑前额叶-顶叶-皮质下网络对接近与远离面部刺激的反应,并且还收集了静息态fMRI数据。使用经典的停止距离程序测量个人空间大小。正如预期的那样,与HC组相比,PD组的个人空间明显更大(P = 0.002)。在两组中,顶叶和额叶皮质区域的一个网络显示出更大的接近偏向反应,而皮质下区域(纹状体、杏仁核和海马体)显示出更大的远离偏向反应。此外,在PD组(而非HC组)中,顶下小叶(IPC)的接近偏向激活以及IPC与腹侧/边缘纹状体之间的功能连接与个人空间大小显著相关。这项研究提供了证据,表明精神病性疾病中的个人空间异常涉及个人空间网络的功能和连接中断。这种脑-行为关系可能作为精神分裂症和相关精神病性疾病新型干预措施的客观治疗靶点。