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Morfini F, Bauer CCC, Zhang J, Whitfield-Gabrieli S, Shinn AK, Niznikiewicz MA. Targeting the superior temporal gyrus with real-time fMRI neurofeedback: A pilot study of the indirect effects on self-referential processes in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 2024; 270:358-365. [PMID: 38968807 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2024.06.036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2023] [Revised: 06/20/2024] [Accepted: 06/22/2024] [Indexed: 07/07/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) and auditory hallucinations (AHs) display a distorted sense of self and self-other boundaries. Alterations of activity in midline cortical structures such as the prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during self-reference as well as in the superior temporal gyrus (STG) have been proposed as neuromarkers of SZ and AHs. METHODS In this randomized, participant-blinded, sham-controlled trial, 22 adults (18 males) with SZ spectrum disorders (SZ or schizoaffective disorder) and frequent medication-resistant AHs received one session of real-time fMRI neurofeedback (NFB) either from the STG (n = 11; experimental group) or motor cortex (n = 11; control group). During NFB, participants were instructed to upregulate their STG activity by attending to pre-recorded sentences spoken in their own voice and downregulate it by ignoring unfamiliar voices. Before and after NFB, participants completed a self-reference task where they evaluated if trait adjectives referred to themselves (self condition), Abraham Lincoln (other condition), or whether adjectives had a positive valence (semantic condition). FMRI activation analyses of self-reference task data tested between-group changes after NFB (self>semantic, post>pre-NFB, experimental>control). Analyses were pre-masked within a self-reference network. RESULTS Activation analyses revealed significantly (p < 0.001) greater activation increase in the experimental, compared to the control group, after NFB within anterior regions of the self-reference network (mPFC, ACC, superior frontal cortex). CONCLUSIONS STG-NFB was associated with activity increase in the mPFC, ACC, and superior frontal cortex during self-reference. Modulating the STG is associated with activation changes in other, not-directly targeted, regions subserving higher-level cognitive processes associated with self-referential processes and AHs psychopathology in SZ. CLINICALTRIALS GOV: Rt-fMRI Neurofeedback and AH in Schizophrenia; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT03504579.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesca Morfini
- Northeastern University, Department of Psychology, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
| | - Clemens C C Bauer
- Northeastern University, Department of Psychology, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Jiahe Zhang
- Northeastern University, Department of Psychology, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli
- Northeastern University, Department of Psychology, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Boston, MA, USA; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
| | - Ann K Shinn
- Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Boston, MA 02115, USA; McLean Hospital, Psychotic Disorders Division, Belmont, MA 02478, USA
| | - Margaret A Niznikiewicz
- Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, Department of Psychiatry, Brockton, MA 02301, USA; Boston VA Research Institute, Boston, MA 02130, USA
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Daub J, Brandt GA, Volkmer S, Northoff G, Hirjak D. Arthur Schopenhauer: An underappreciated philosopher in psychiatry and his applied epistemology of body and self- experience. Schizophr Res 2024; 267:487-496. [PMID: 38693031 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2024.04.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2024] [Revised: 04/22/2024] [Accepted: 04/23/2024] [Indexed: 05/03/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) was one of the most important thinkers of the 19th century. Although his writings have exerted great influence in many different disciplines, his epistemological concepts and analysis of the body and self-experience were rarely considered in the context of psychiatric research of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) and depression (MDD). METHODS The method applied for the study of anomalous self and body-experience first consists in the close reading and analysis of Schopenhauer's most influential writings, namely his opus magnus "The World as Will and Representation" and his dissertation "On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason". Second, psychopathological and phenomenological aspects of the anomalous body and self, as well as altered space and time experience, are discussed by means of Schopenhauer's philosophy and four patient cases. RESULTS Schopenhauer's insights contribute to contemporary psychiatry by (1) unifying materialistic (neurobiological) and idealistic (subjective) conceptions of psychiatric disorders and improving the awareness of methods in psychiatric research; (2) emphasizing the integral significance of the body as a gateway to the surrounding world and basal self-experience; (3) delineating subjective space and time-experience as crucial dimensions of the conditio humana in SSD and MDD; and (4) demonstrating the feasibility of transferring his theories directly to clinical case vignettes stemming from the daily clinical routine. CONCLUSION Close reading of Schopenhauer's texts might help bridge the gap between different scientific methods in psychiatry and overcome the translational crisis of contemporary psychiatry by unifying neurobiological and subjective approaches to SSD and MDD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonas Daub
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany; German Centre for Mental Health (DZPG), partner site Mannheim, Germany.
| | - Geva A Brandt
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany; German Centre for Mental Health (DZPG), partner site Mannheim, Germany
| | - Sebastian Volkmer
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany; German Centre for Mental Health (DZPG), partner site Mannheim, Germany
| | - Georg Northoff
- Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics Research Unit, The Royal's Institute of Mental Health Research, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
| | - Dusan Hirjak
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany; German Centre for Mental Health (DZPG), partner site Mannheim, Germany.
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Tandon R, Nasrallah H, Akbarian S, Carpenter WT, DeLisi LE, Gaebel W, Green MF, Gur RE, Heckers S, Kane JM, Malaspina D, Meyer-Lindenberg A, Murray R, Owen M, Smoller JW, Yassin W, Keshavan M. The schizophrenia syndrome, circa 2024: What we know and how that informs its nature. Schizophr Res 2024; 264:1-28. [PMID: 38086109 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2023.11.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2023] [Revised: 11/23/2023] [Accepted: 11/29/2023] [Indexed: 03/01/2024]
Abstract
With new data about different aspects of schizophrenia being continually generated, it becomes necessary to periodically revisit exactly what we know. Along with a need to review what we currently know about schizophrenia, there is an equal imperative to evaluate the construct itself. With these objectives, we undertook an iterative, multi-phase process involving fifty international experts in the field, with each step building on learnings from the prior one. This review assembles currently established findings about schizophrenia (construct, etiology, pathophysiology, clinical expression, treatment) and posits what they reveal about its nature. Schizophrenia is a heritable, complex, multi-dimensional syndrome with varying degrees of psychotic, negative, cognitive, mood, and motor manifestations. The illness exhibits a remitting and relapsing course, with varying degrees of recovery among affected individuals with most experiencing significant social and functional impairment. Genetic risk factors likely include thousands of common genetic variants that each have a small impact on an individual's risk and a plethora of rare gene variants that have a larger individual impact on risk. Their biological effects are concentrated in the brain and many of the same variants also increase the risk of other psychiatric disorders such as bipolar disorder, autism, and other neurodevelopmental conditions. Environmental risk factors include but are not limited to urban residence in childhood, migration, older paternal age at birth, cannabis use, childhood trauma, antenatal maternal infection, and perinatal hypoxia. Structural, functional, and neurochemical brain alterations implicate multiple regions and functional circuits. Dopamine D-2 receptor antagonists and partial agonists improve psychotic symptoms and reduce risk of relapse. Certain psychological and psychosocial interventions are beneficial. Early intervention can reduce treatment delay and improve outcomes. Schizophrenia is increasingly considered to be a heterogeneous syndrome and not a singular disease entity. There is no necessary or sufficient etiology, pathology, set of clinical features, or treatment that fully circumscribes this syndrome. A single, common pathophysiological pathway appears unlikely. The boundaries of schizophrenia remain fuzzy, suggesting the absence of a categorical fit and need to reconceptualize it as a broader, multi-dimensional and/or spectrum construct.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rajiv Tandon
- Department of Psychiatry, WMU Homer Stryker School of Medicine, Kalamazoo, MI 49008, United States of America.
| | - Henry Nasrallah
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine Cincinnati, OH 45267, United States of America
| | - Schahram Akbarian
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai, New York, NY 10029, United States of America
| | - William T Carpenter
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201, United States of America
| | - Lynn E DeLisi
- Department of Psychiatry, Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States of America
| | - Wolfgang Gaebel
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, LVR-Klinikum Dusseldorf, Heinrich-Heine University, Dusseldorf, Germany
| | - Michael F Green
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Jane and Terry Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90024, United States of America; Greater Los Angeles Veterans' Administration Healthcare System, United States of America
| | - Raquel E Gur
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104, United States of America
| | - Stephan Heckers
- Department of Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37232, United States of America
| | - John M Kane
- Department of Psychiatry, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Glen Oaks, NY 11004, United States of America
| | - Dolores Malaspina
- Department of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Genetics, and Genomics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai, New York, NY 10029, United States of America
| | - Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannhein/Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Robin Murray
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, Kings College, London, UK
| | - Michael Owen
- Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, and Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
| | - Jordan W Smoller
- Center for Precision Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Unit, Center for Genomic Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, United States of America
| | - Walid Yassin
- Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, United States of America
| | - Matcheri Keshavan
- Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, United States of America
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Bröcker AL, von Haebler D, Lempa G, Montag C. Mentalizing in the context of Mentzos' dilemma-on the use of implicit work in the treatment of non-affective psychosis. Front Psychiatry 2023; 14:1229113. [PMID: 37529074 PMCID: PMC10389263 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1229113] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2023] [Accepted: 06/27/2023] [Indexed: 08/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Current approaches to the treatment of non-affective psychosis include elements of mentalization-based treatment and the potential in enhancing mentalizing capacity in this patient group has been widely emphasized. This article presents the "psychotic identity dilemma", a concept by Stavros Mentzos, and a therapeutic approach considering this concept as a valuable complementary addition to these treatments. The idea of a dilemma between closeness and distance, which in itself cannot be represented mentally at first, helps to respond to specific needs of patients with psychotic disorders by placing the treatment focus on fundamental interpersonal processes. Following this train of thought, this article attempts to shed light on the importance of the "real relationship" between therapist and patient as well as the exploration of the "here and now", especially at the beginning of psychotherapeutic treatment. Two treatment modes are suggested, one characterized by the experience of interpersonality within the therapeutic relationship and a second one characterized by the reflection of interpersonal phenomena. These modes are framed by Stavros Mentzos' concept of an identity dilemma. We describe how mentalizing first needs to be addressed implicitly in a tolerable, exemplary relationship in which closeness and distance are regulated based on the therapist's countertransference, then explicitly. A series of interventions are described, which allow for moments of shared attention, promote intentionality and contingency and, later in the course of therapy, help to integrate experiences into narratives.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna-Lena Bröcker
- Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Campus Charité Mitte, Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Dorothea von Haebler
- Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Campus Charité Mitte, Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- International Psychoanalytic University Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | | | - Christiane Montag
- Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Campus Charité Mitte, Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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Abplanalp SJ, Lee J, Horan WP, Kern RS, Penn DL, Green MF. A Bayesian Network Approach to Social and Nonsocial Cognition in Schizophrenia: Are Some Domains More Fundamental than Others? Schizophr Bull 2023; 49:997-1006. [PMID: 36869810 PMCID: PMC10318874 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbad012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/05/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Social and nonsocial cognition are defined as distinct yet related constructs. However, the relative independence of individual variables-and whether specific tasks directly depend on performance in other tasks-is still unclear. The current study aimed to answer this question by using a Bayesian network approach to explore directional dependencies among social and nonsocial cognitive domains. STUDY DESIGN The study sample comprised 173 participants with schizophrenia (71.7% male; 28.3% female). Participants completed 5 social cognitive tasks and the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery. We estimated Bayesian networks using directed acyclic graph structures to examine directional dependencies among the variables. STUDY RESULTS After accounting for negative symptoms and demographic variables, including age and sex, all nonsocial cognitive variables depended on processing speed. More specifically, attention, verbal memory, and reasoning and problem solving solely depended on processing speed, while a causal chain emerged between processing speed and visual memory (processing speed → attention → working memory → visual memory). Social processing variables within social cognition, including emotion in biological motion and empathic accuracy, depended on facial affect identification. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that processing speed and facial affect identification are fundamental domains of nonsocial and social cognition, respectively. We outline how these findings could potentially help guide specific interventions that aim to improve social and nonsocial cognition in people with schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samuel J Abplanalp
- Desert Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center, Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, CA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Junghee Lee
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham AL, USA
| | - William P Horan
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- WCG VeraSci, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Robert S Kern
- Desert Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center, Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, CA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - David L Penn
- Departement of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chappel Hill, NC, USA
- School of Behavioural and Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Michael F Green
- Desert Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center, Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, CA, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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Tandon R, Keshavan M, Nasrallah H. Reinventing schizophrenia. Updating the construct. Schizophr Res 2022; 242:1-3. [PMID: 35241314 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2022.02.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2022] [Accepted: 02/17/2022] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Rajiv Tandon
- Department of Psychiatry, WMU Homer Stryker School of Medicine, Kalamazoo, MI, United States of America.
| | - Matcheri Keshavan
- Department of Psychiatry, BIDMC, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States of America
| | - Henry Nasrallah
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Cincinnati Medical School, Cincinnati, OH, United States of America
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