Journal
NEUROSCIENCE BULLETIN
Volume 29, Issue 1, Pages 59-74Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s12264-013-1300-8
Keywords
schizophrenia; emotion regulation; ventral medial prefrontal cortex; functional connectivity; resting state; functional MRI
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Funding
- Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission [D0906001040191, D101107047810005, D101100050010051]
- Beijing Natural Science Foundation [7102086]
- Fund for Capital Medical Development and Research [2007-3059]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [81171409]
- Startup Foundation for Distinguished Research Professors of the Institute for Psychology [Y0CX492S03]
- Fund for Outstanding Talents in Beijing [2012D003034000003]
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People with schizophrenia exhibit impaired social cognitive functions, particularly emotion regulation. Abnormal activations of the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) during emotional tasks have been demonstrated in schizophrenia, suggesting its important role in emotion processing in patients. We used the resting-state functional connectivity approach, setting a functionally relevant region, the vMPFC, as a seed region to examine the intrinsic functional interactions and communication between the vMPFC and other brain regions in schizophrenic patients. We found hypo-connectivity between the vMPFC and the medial frontal cortex, right middle temporal lobe (MTL), right hippocampus, parahippocampal cortex (PHC) and amygdala. Further, there was a decreased strength of the negative connectivity (or anticorrelation) between the vMPFC and the bilateral dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and pre-supplementary motor areas. Among these connectivity alterations, reduced vMPFC-DLPFC connectivity was positively correlated with positive symptoms on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, while vMPFC-right MTL/PHC/amygdala functional connectivity was positively correlated with the performance of emotional regulation in patients. These findings imply that communication and coordination throughout the brain networks are disrupted in schizophrenia. The emotional correlates of vMPFC connectivity suggest a role of the hypo-connectivity between these regions in the neuropathology of abnormal social cognition in chronic schizophrenia.
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