Dataset Information

Ventral medial prefrontal functional connectivity and emotion regulation in chronic schizophrenia: a pilot study.

ABSTRACT: 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.

SUBMITTER: Fan FM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5561861 | biostudies-other | 2013 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundInsight is impaired in the majority of schizophrenia patients. The exact neural correlates of impaired insight remain unclear. We assume that the ability to regulate emotions contributes to having good clinical insight, as patients should be able to regulate their emotional state in such a way that they can adapt adequately in order to cope with impaired functioning and negative stigma associated with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Numerous studies have shown emotional dysregulation in schizophrenia. We investigated the association between insight and brain activation and connectivity during emotion regulation.MethodsBrain activation during emotion regulation was measured with functional MRI in 30 individuals with schizophrenia. Two emotion regulation strategies were examined: cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Clinical insight was measured with the Schedule for the Assessment of Insight - Expanded, and cognitive insight was measured with the Beck Cognitive Insight Scale. Whole brain random effects multiple regression analyses were conducted to assess the relation between brain activation during emotion regulation and insight. Generalized psychophysiological interaction (gPPI) was used to investigate the relation between task-related connectivity and insight.ResultsNo significant associations were found between insight and neural correlates of cognitive reappraisal. For clinical insight and suppression, significant positive associations were found between symptom relabeling and activation in the left striatum, thalamus and insula, right insula and caudate, right pre- and postcentral gyrus, left superior occipital gyrus and cuneus and right middle and superior occipital gyrus and cuneus. Furthermore, reduced clinical insight was associated with more connectivity between midline medial frontal gyrus and right middle occipital gyrus. For cognitive insight and suppression, significant positive associations were found between self-reflectiveness and activation in pre- and postcentral gyrus and left middle cingulate gyrus.ConclusionsOur results suggest an association between the capacity to relabel symptoms and activation of brain systems involved in cognitive-emotional control and visual processing of negative stimuli. Furthermore, poorer self-reflectiveness may be associated with brain systems subserving control and execution.

Dataset Information

Ventral medial prefrontal functional connectivity and emotion regulation in chronic schizophrenia: a pilot study.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets