Neural activation during natural speech and rests in patients with schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorders—an fMRI pilot trial
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Hahn W
PROVIDER: S-EPMC11210388 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Similar Datasets
Project description:Patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) exhibit an aberrant perception and comprehension of abstract speech-gesture combinations associated with dysfunctional activation of the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Recently, a significant deficit of speech-gesture mismatch detection was identified in SSD, but the underlying neural mechanisms have not yet been examined. A novel mismatch-detection fMRI paradigm was implemented manipulating speech-gesture abstractness (abstract/concrete) and relatedness (related/unrelated). During fMRI data acquisition, 42 SSD patients (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or other non-organic psychotic disorder [ICD-10: F20, F25, F28; DSM-IV: 295.X]) and 36 healthy controls were presented with short video clips of an actor reciting abstract or concrete sentences accompanied by either a semantically related or unrelated gesture. Participants indicated via button press whether they perceived each gesture as matching the speech content or not. Speech-gesture mismatch detection performance was significantly impaired in patients compared to controls. fMRI data analysis revealed that patients showed lower activation in bilateral frontal areas, including the IFG for all abstract > concrete speech-gesture pairs. In addition, they exhibited reduced engagement of the right supplementary motor area (SMA) and bilateral anterior cingulate cortices (ACC) for unrelated > related stimuli. We provide first evidence that impaired speech-gesture mismatch detection in SSD could be the result of dysfunctional activation of the SMA and ACC. Failure to activate the left IFG disrupts the integration of abstract speech-gesture combinations in particular. Future investigations should focus on brain stimulation of the SMA, ACC, and the IFG to improve communication and social functioning in SSD.
| S-EPMC8530401 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Many figurative expressions are fully conventionalized in everyday speech. Regarding the neural basis of figurative language processing, research has predominantly focused on metaphoric expressions in minimal semantic context. It remains unclear in how far metaphoric expressions during continuous text comprehension activate similar neural networks as isolated metaphors. We therefore investigated the processing of similes (figurative language, e.g., "He smokes like a chimney!") occurring in a short story. Sixteen healthy, male, native German speakers listened to similes that came about naturally in a short story, while blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) responses were measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). For the event-related analysis, similes were contrasted with non-figurative control sentences (CS). The stimuli differed with respect to figurativeness, while they were matched for frequency of words, number of syllables, plausibility, and comprehensibility. Similes contrasted with CS resulted in enhanced BOLD responses in the left inferior (IFG) and adjacent middle frontal gyrus. Concrete CS as compared to similes activated the bilateral middle temporal gyri as well as the right precuneus and the left middle frontal gyrus (LMFG). Activation of the left IFG for similes in a short story is consistent with results on single sentence metaphor processing. The findings strengthen the importance of the left inferior frontal region in the processing of abstract figurative speech during continuous, ecologically-valid speech comprehension; the processing of concrete semantic contents goes along with a down-regulation of bilateral temporal regions.
| S-EPMC3776934 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundClinicians routinely use impressions of speech as an element of mental status examination. In schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, descriptions of speech are used to assess the severity of psychotic symptoms. In the current study, we assessed the diagnostic value of acoustic speech parameters in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, as well as its value in recognizing positive and negative symptoms.MethodsSpeech was obtained from 142 patients with a schizophrenia-spectrum disorder and 142 matched controls during a semi-structured interview on neutral topics. Patients were categorized as having predominantly positive or negative symptoms using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Acoustic parameters were extracted with OpenSMILE, employing the extended Geneva Acoustic Minimalistic Parameter Set, which includes standardized analyses of pitch (F0), speech quality and pauses. Speech parameters were fed into a random forest algorithm with leave-ten-out cross-validation to assess their value for a schizophrenia-spectrum diagnosis, and PANSS subtype recognition.ResultsThe machine-learning speech classifier attained an accuracy of 86.2% in classifying patients with a schizophrenia-spectrum disorder and controls on speech parameters alone. Patients with predominantly positive v. negative symptoms could be classified with an accuracy of 74.2%.ConclusionsOur results show that automatically extracted speech parameters can be used to accurately classify patients with a schizophrenia-spectrum disorder and healthy controls, as well as differentiate between patients with predominantly positive v. negatives symptoms. Thus, the field of speech technology has provided a standardized, powerful tool that has high potential for clinical applications in diagnosis and differentiation, given its ease of comparison and replication across samples.
| S-EPMC10009369 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Syntax, the grammatical structure of sentences, is a fundamental aspect of language. It remains debated whether reduced syntactic complexity is unique to schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD) or whether it is also present in major depressive disorder (MDD). Furthermore, the association of syntax (including syntactic complexity and diversity) with language-related neuropsychology and psychopathological symptoms across disorders remains unclear. Thirty-four SSD patients and thirty-eight MDD patients diagnosed according to DSM-IV-TR as well as forty healthy controls (HC) were included and tasked with describing four pictures from the Thematic Apperception Test. We analyzed the produced speech regarding its syntax delineating measures for syntactic complexity (the total number of main clauses embedding subordinate clauses) and diversity (number of different types of complex sentences). We performed cluster analysis to identify clusters based on syntax and investigated associations of syntactic, to language-related neuropsychological (verbal fluency and verbal episodic memory), and psychopathological measures (positive and negative formal thought disorder) using network analyses. Syntax in SSD was significantly reduced in comparison to MDD and HC, whereas the comparison of HC and MDD revealed no significant differences. No associations were present between speech measures and current medication, duration and severity of illness, age or sex; the single association accounted for was education. A cluster analysis resulted in four clusters with different degrees of syntax across diagnoses. Subjects with less syntax exhibited pronounced positive and negative symptoms and displayed poorer performance in executive functioning, global functioning, and verbal episodic memory. All cluster-based networks indicated varying degrees of domain-specific and cross-domain connections. Measures of syntactic complexity were closely related while syntactic diversity appeared to be a separate node outside of the syntactic network. Cross-domain associations were more salient in more complex syntactic production.
| S-EPMC10227047 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Flexible goal-directed human cognition is supported by many forms of self-directed manipulation of representations. Among them, Inner-Speech (IS; covert self-directed speech) acts on second-order representations (e.g., goals/sub-goals), empowering attention and feedback processing. Interestingly, patients with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders (SSD) show impaired Executive Functions (EF; e.g., cognitive flexibility) and, probably, a related IS alteration. However, fragmentary evidence and no computational modeling prevent a clear assessment of these processes and focused therapeutic interventions. Here, we address these issues by exploiting a translational approach that integrates experimental clinical data, machine learning, and computational modeling. First, we administered the Wisconsin Cards Sorting Test (WCST; a neuropsychological test probing cognitive flexibility) to 162 SSD patients and 108 healthy control participants, and we computed the clinical behavioural data with a data-driven clustering algorithm. Second, we extracted the cluster neuropsychological profiles with our theory-based validated computational model of the WCST. Finally, we exploited our model to emulate an IS-based psychotherapeutic intervention for SSD subpopulations. We identified different SSD sub-populations and global trends (e.g., a descending feedback sensitivity); however, extremely different neuropsychological profiles emerged. In particular, 'Relatively Intact' patients showed an unexpected profile (distraction/reasoning failures), quite divergent from the perseverative/rigid profile of the others. Importantly, the former showed no impact of Interfering-IS, while the others showed increased Interfering-IS strongly affecting their cognition. These differences highlight that SSD populations require a cluster-dependent individualisation of the intervention to achieve adequate cognitive performance. Overall, these results support a clear definition of neuropsychological profiles and the related Interfering-IS impact in SSD subpopulations, thus showing important implications for basic research (e.g., cognitive neuroscience) and clinical fields (clinical psychology and psychiatry).
| S-EPMC11822060 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Schizophrenia and autism both feature significant impairments in social cognition and social functioning, but the specificity and mechanisms of these deficits remain unknown. Recent research suggests that social cognitive deficits in both disorders may arise from dysfunctions in the neural systems that underlie social cognition. We explored the neural activation of discrete brain regions implicated in social cognitive and face processing in schizophrenia subgroups and autism spectrum disorders during complex social judgments of faces. Twelve individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), 12 paranoid individuals with schizophrenia (P-SCZ), 12 non-paranoid individuals with schizophrenia (NP-SCZ), and 12 non-clinical healthy controls participated in this cross sectional study. Neural activation, as indexed by blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) contrast, was measured in a priori regions of interest while individuals rated faces for trustworthiness. All groups showed significant activation of a social cognitive network including the amygdala, fusiform face area (FFA), superior temporal sulcus (STS), and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) while completing a task of complex social cognition (i.e. trustworthiness judgments). ASD and P-SCZ individuals showed significantly reduced neural activation in the right amygdala, FFA, and left VLPFC as compared to controls and in the left VLPFC as compared to NP-SCZ individuals during this task. These findings lend support to models hypothesizing well-defined neural substrates of social cognition and suggest a specific neural mechanism that may underlie social cognitive impairments in both autism and paranoid schizophrenia.
| S-EPMC2740744 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionThe cerebral resting state in schizophrenia is altered, as has been demonstrated separately by electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) resting state networks (RSNs). Previous simultaneous EEG/fMRI findings in healthy controls suggest that a consistent spatiotemporal coupling between neural oscillations (EEG frequency correlates) and RSN activity is necessary to organize cognitive processes optimally. We hypothesized that this coupling is disorganized in schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders, in particular regarding higher cognitive RSNs such as the default-mode (DMN) and left-working-memory network (LWMN).MethodsResting state was investigated in eleven patients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (n?=?11) and matched healthy controls (n?=?11) using simultaneous EEG/fMRI. The temporal association of each RSN to topographic spectral changes in the EEG was assessed by creating Covariance Maps. Group differences within, and group similarities across frequencies were estimated for the Covariance Maps.ResultsThe coupling of EEG frequency bands to the DMN and the LWMN respectively, displayed significant similarities that were shifted towards lower EEG frequencies in patients compared to healthy controls.ConclusionsBy combining EEG and fMRI, each measuring different properties of the same pathophysiology, an aberrant relationship between EEG frequencies and altered RSNs was observed in patients. RSNs of patients were related to lower EEG frequencies, indicating functional alterations of the spatiotemporal coupling.SignificanceThe finding of a deviant and shifted coupling between RSNs and related EEG frequencies in patients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder is significant, as it might indicate how failures in the processing of internal and external stimuli, as commonly seen during this symptomatology (i.e. thought disorders, hallucinations), arise.
| S-EPMC3790692 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Impaired antisaccade performance is a consistent cognitive finding in schizophrenia. Antisaccades require both response inhibition and volitional motor programming, functions that are essential to flexible responding. We investigated whether abnormal timing of hemodynamic responses (HDRs) to antisaccades might contribute to perseveration of ocular motor responses in schizophrenia. We focused on the frontal eye field (FEF), which has been implicated in the persistent effects of antisaccades on subsequent responses in healthy individuals.Eighteen chronic, medicated schizophrenia outpatients and 15 healthy controls performed antisaccades and prosaccades during functional MRI. Finite impulse response models provided unbiased estimates of event-related HDRs. We compared groups on the peak amplitude, time-to-peak, and full-width half-max of the HDRs.In patients, HDRs in bilateral FEF were delayed and prolonged but ultimately of similar amplitude to that of controls. These abnormalities were present for antisaccades, but not prosaccades, and were not seen in a control region. More prolonged HDRs predicted slower responses in trials that followed an antisaccade. This suggests that persistent FEF activity following an antisaccade contributes to inter-trial effects on latency.Delayed and prolonged HDRs for antisaccades in schizophrenia suggest that the functions necessary for successful antisaccade performance take longer to implement and are more persistent. If abnormally persistent neural responses on cognitively demanding tasks are a more general feature of schizophrenia, they may contribute to response perseveration, a classic behavioral abnormality. These findings also underscore the importance of evaluating the temporal dynamics of neural activity to understand cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia.
| S-EPMC3172368 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionSuicidal ideation and behavior (SIB) are serious problems in people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD). Nevertheless, relatively little is known about the circuitry underlying SIB in SSD. Recently, we showed that elevated emotional impulsivity (urgency) was associated with SIB in SSD. Here we examined brain activity in people with SSD and elevated SIB.MethodsWe tested 16 people with SSD who had low SIB and 14 people with high SIB on a task in which emotion regulation in response to affective pictures was implicitly manipulated using spoken sentences. Thus, there were neutral pictures preceded by neutral statements (NeutNeut condition), as well as negative pictures preceded by either negative (NegNeg) or neutral (NeutNeg) statements. After each picture, participants rated how unpleasant each picture was for them. The latter two conditions were compared to the NeutNeut condition. We compared the emotion-regulated condition (NeutNeg) to the unregulated condition (NeutNeut). Statistics were threshold using threshold free cluster enhancement (TFCE).ResultsPeople in the low SIB group showed higher activation in this contrast in medial frontal gyrus, right rostral anterior cingulate, bilateral superior frontal gyrus/DLPFC, and right middle cingulate gyrus, as well as right superior temporal gyrus.DiscussionThis study provides clues to the neural basis of SIB in SSD as well as underlying mechanisms.
| S-EPMC11234166 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundOxytocin has been proposed to mediate amygdala dysfunction associated with altered emotion processing in schizophrenia, but the contribution of oxytocin pathway genes is yet to be investigated.AimsTo identify potential different contributions of three oxytocin receptor polymorphisms (rs53576, rs237902 and rs2254298) between patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SCZ), affective spectrum disorders (AD) and healthy controls (HC).MethodIn a total of 346 participants (104 with SCZ, 100 with AD, and 142 HC) underwent genotyping and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during an emotional faces matching paradigm. Genetic association analyses were performed to test the possible effects on task-induced BOLD amygdala response to fearful/angry faces.ResultsIn participants with SCZ, the rs237902 G allele was associated with low amygdala activation (left hemisphere: b=-4.99, Bonferroni corrected P=0.04) and interaction analyses showed that this association was disorder specific (left hemisphere: Bonferroni corrected P=0.003; right hemisphere: Bonferroni corrected P=0.03). There were no associations between oxytocin polymorphisms and amygdala activation in the total sample, among AD patients or HC.ConclusionsRs237902 was associated with amygdala activation in response to fearful/angry faces only in patients with SCZ. Our findings indicate that the endogenous oxytocin system could serve as a contributing factor in biological underpinnings of emotion processing and that this contribution is disorder specific.Declaration of interestO.A.A. received speaker's honoraria from GSK, Otsuka, Lundbeck.Copyright and usage© The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2016. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.
| S-EPMC5099986 | biostudies-literature