1
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An integrative perspective on the role of touch in the development of intersubjectivity. Brain Cogn 2022; 163:105915. [PMID: 36162247 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2022.105915] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2022] [Revised: 09/14/2022] [Accepted: 09/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Touch concerns a fundamental component of sociality. In this review, we examine the hypothesis that somatomotor development constitutes a crucial psychophysiological element in the ontogeny of intersubjectivity. An interdisciplinary perspective is provided on how the communication channel of touch contributes to the sense of self and extends to the social self. During gestation, the transformation of random movements into organized sequences of actions with sensory consequences parallels the development of the brain's functional architecture. Brain subsystems shaped by the coordinated activity of somatomotor circuits to support these first body-environment interactions are the first brain functional arrangements to develop. We propose that tactile self-referring behaviour during gestation constitutes a prototypic mode of interpersonal exchange that supports the subsequent development of intersubjective exchange. The reviewed research suggests that touch constitutes a pivotal bodily experience that in early stages builds and later filters self-other interactions. This view is corroborated by the fact that aberrant social-affective touch experiences appear fundamentally associated with attachment anomalies, interpersonal trauma, and personality disorders. Given the centrality of touch for the development of intersubjectivity and for psychopathological conditions in the social domain, dedicated research is urged to elucidate the role of touch in the evolution of subjective self-other coding.
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2
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Eddy CM. The Transdiagnostic Relevance of Self-Other Distinction to Psychiatry Spans Emotional, Cognitive and Motor Domains. Front Psychiatry 2022; 13:797952. [PMID: 35360118 PMCID: PMC8960177 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.797952] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2021] [Accepted: 02/14/2022] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Self-other distinction refers to the ability to distinguish between our own and other people's physical and mental states (actions, perceptions, emotions etc.). Both the right temporo-parietal junction and brain areas associated with the human mirror neuron system are likely to critically influence self-other distinction, given their respective contributions to theory of mind and embodied empathy. The degree of appropriate self-other distinction will vary according to the exact social situation, and how helpful it is to feel into, or remain detached from, another person's mental state. Indeed, the emotional resonance that we can share with others affords the gift of empathy, but over-sharing may pose a downside, leading to a range of difficulties from personal distress to paranoia, and perhaps even motor tics and compulsions. The aim of this perspective paper is to consider how evidence from behavioral and neurophysiological studies supports a role for problems with self-other distinction in a range of psychiatric symptoms spanning the emotional, cognitive and motor domains. The various signs and symptoms associated with problematic self-other distinction comprise both maladaptive and adaptive (compensatory) responses to dysfunction within a common underlying neuropsychological mechanism, compelling the adoption of more holistic transdiagnostic therapeutic approaches within Psychiatry.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clare M Eddy
- Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
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3
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Gillespie SM, Kongerslev MT, Bo S, Abu-Akel AM. Schizotypy and psychopathic tendencies interactively improve misattribution of affect in boys with conduct problems. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2021; 30:885-897. [PMID: 32476073 PMCID: PMC8140966 DOI: 10.1007/s00787-020-01567-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2019] [Accepted: 05/25/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Psychopathic tendencies are associated with difficulties in affective theory of mind (ToM), that is, in recognizing others affective mental states. In clinical and non-clinical adult samples, it has been shown that where psychopathic tendencies co-occur with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, the impairing effects of psychopathic tendencies on ToM are attenuated. These effects are yet to be examined in adolescents. We examined if the impairing effect of psychopathic tendencies on affective ToM was attenuated with increasing severity of schizotypal personality disorder (PD) in a sample of 80 incarcerated adolescent boys. We showed that the impairing effect of psychopathic tendencies on the recognition of neutral mental states, but not positive or negative mental states, was evident when the relative severity of schizotypal PD was low. However, with higher scores on both measures, we observed better performance in judging neutral mental states. The preservation of affective ToM in adolescents who show elevations in psychopathic tendencies and schizotypal PD may enable them to manipulate and extort their victims for personal gain. Our results emphasize the need to consider comorbidity in clinical case formulation when working with adolescents with conduct problems and psychopathic tendencies. More broadly, our results also suggest that the pattern of social cognitive abilities associated with co-occurring psychopathology does not always conform to an often-theorized double-dose of deficit hypothesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steven M Gillespie
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3GB, UK.
| | - Mickey T Kongerslev
- Department of Psychology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
- Psychiatric Research Unit, Region Zealand, Slagelse, Denmark
| | - Sune Bo
- Psychiatric Research Unit, Region Zealand, Slagelse, Denmark
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Region Zealand, Roskilde, Denmark
| | - Ahmad M Abu-Akel
- Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Psychology, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
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4
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Dietz MJ, Zhou Y, Veddum L, Frith CD, Bliksted VF. Aberrant effective connectivity is associated with positive symptoms in first-episode schizophrenia. NEUROIMAGE-CLINICAL 2020; 28:102444. [PMID: 33039973 PMCID: PMC7551359 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102444] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2020] [Revised: 09/04/2020] [Accepted: 09/20/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
We use DCM in patients newly diagnosed with schizophrenia. Patients were naïve to therapeutic antipsychotics, but not completely drug naïve. Patients have stronger feedforward connectivity than matched healthy controls. Stronger positive symptoms are associated with disinhibition in the temporal lobe. In active inference, this may relate to aberrant precision and prediction errors.
Schizophrenia is a neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorder thought to result from synaptic dysfunction that affects distributed brain connectivity, rather than any particular brain region. While symptomatology is traditionally divided into positive and negative symptoms, abnormal social cognition is now recognized a key component of schizophrenia. Nonetheless, we are still lacking a mechanistic understanding of effective brain connectivity in schizophrenia during social cognition and how it relates to clinical symptomatology. To address this question, we used fMRI and dynamic causal modelling (DCM) to test for abnormal brain connectivity in twenty-four patients with first-episode schizophrenia (FES) compared to twenty-five matched controls performing the Human Connectome Project (HCP) social cognition paradigm. Patients had not received regular therapeutic antipsychotics, but were not completely drug naïve. Whilst patients were less accurate than controls in judging social stimuli from non-social stimuli, our results revealed an increase in feedforward connectivity from motion-sensitive V5 to posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) in patients compared to matched controls. At the same time, patients with a higher degree of positive symptoms had more disinhibition within pSTS, a region computationally involved in social cognition. We interpret these findings the framework of active inference, where increased feedforward connectivity may encode aberrant prediction errors from V5 to pSTS and local disinhibition within pSTS may reflect aberrant encoding of the precision of cortical representations about social stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin J Dietz
- Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark.
| | - Yuan Zhou
- CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Beijing 100101, PR China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China
| | - Lotte Veddum
- Psychosis Research Unit, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark; Institute of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark
| | - Christopher D Frith
- The Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, United Kingdom; Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Denmark
| | - Vibeke F Bliksted
- Psychosis Research Unit, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark; Institute of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Denmark; Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University, Denmark
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5
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Hyatt CJ, Calhoun VD, Pittman B, Corbera S, Bell MD, Rabany L, Pelphrey K, Pearlson GD, Assaf M. Default mode network modulation by mentalizing in young adults with autism spectrum disorder or schizophrenia. Neuroimage Clin 2020; 27:102343. [PMID: 32711391 PMCID: PMC7381691 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102343] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2020] [Revised: 06/16/2020] [Accepted: 07/05/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are nosologically distinct neurodevelopmental disorders with similar deficits in social cognition, including the ability to form mental representations of others (i.e., mentalizing). However, the extent of patient deficit overlap in underlying neural mechanisms is unclear. Our goal was to examine deficits in mentalizing task-related (MTR) activity modulation in schizophrenia and ASD and the relationship of such deficits with social functioning and psychotic symptoms in patients. Adults, ages 18-34, diagnosed with either ASD or schizophrenia, and typically developed controls (n = 30/group), performed an interactive functional MRI Domino task. Using independent component analysis, we analyzed game intervals known to stimulate mentalizing in the default mode network (DMN), i.e., medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), precuneus, and temporoparietal junction (TPJ), for group differences in MTR activity and associations between MTR activity and social and psychosis measures. Compared to controls, both schizophrenia and ASD groups showed MTR activity deficits in PCC and TPJ. In TPJ and MPFC, MTR activity modulation was associated with social communication impairments only in ASD. In precuneus, MTR activity was associated with increased self-reported fantasizing only in schizophrenia. In schizophrenia, we found no indication of over-mentalizing activity or an association between MTR activity and psychotic symptoms. Results suggest shared neural deficits between ASD and schizophrenia in mentalizing-associated DMN regions; however, neural organization might correspond to different dimensional social deficits. Our results therefore indicate the importance of examining both categorical-clinical diagnosis and social functioning dimensional constructs when examining neural deficits in schizophrenia and ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher J Hyatt
- Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Institute of Living, Hartford, CT, USA
| | - Vince D Calhoun
- Tri-institutional Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS) [Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University], Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Brian Pittman
- Yale University, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Silvia Corbera
- Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Institute of Living, Hartford, CT, USA; Central Connecticut State University, Department of Psychological Science, New Britain, CT, USA
| | - Morris D Bell
- Yale University, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, New Haven, CT, USA; VA Connecticut Healthcare System West Haven, CT, USA
| | - Liron Rabany
- Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Institute of Living, Hartford, CT, USA
| | - Kevin Pelphrey
- Jefferson Scholars Foundation, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
| | - Godfrey D Pearlson
- Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Institute of Living, Hartford, CT, USA; Yale University, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Michal Assaf
- Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Institute of Living, Hartford, CT, USA; Yale University, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, New Haven, CT, USA.
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6
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Affiliation(s)
- Bernard Crespi
- Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada
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7
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Di Plinio S, Perrucci MG, Aleman A, Ebisch SJH. I am Me: Brain systems integrate and segregate to establish a multidimensional sense of self. Neuroimage 2019; 205:116284. [PMID: 31629830 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116284] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2019] [Revised: 10/07/2019] [Accepted: 10/14/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans experience a sense of self, which is proposed to emerge from the integration of intrinsic and extrinsic self-processing through the propagation of information across brain systems. Using a novel functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm, we tested this hypothesis in a non-clinical sample by modulating the intrinsic and extrinsic self-relatedness of auditory action consequences in terms of identity and agency, respectively. In addition, the relevance of individual traits associated with altered self-experiences (e.g., psychosis-like experiences) was examined. The task-evoked fMRI results showed distinctive associations between the neural coding of identity and negative affect traits, and between agency and psychosis-like experiences. Most importantly, regarding the functional connectivity analysis, graph theoretical measures demonstrated that the simultaneous processing of identity and agency relies on the functional integration and segregation of default mode, sensorimotor, language, and executive brain networks. Finally, cross-network interactions mediated by executive and sensorimotor regions were negatively associated with psychosis-like experiences when the intrinsic and extrinsic self-relatedness of action consequences conflicted. These findings provide evidence that the self is a multidimensional phenomenon rooted in the functional interactions between large-scale neuronal networks. Such interactions may have particular relevance for self-experience alterations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simone Di Plinio
- Department of Neuroscience Imaging and Clinical Sciences, "G. d'Annunzio" University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy.
| | - Mauro Gianni Perrucci
- Department of Neuroscience Imaging and Clinical Sciences, "G. d'Annunzio" University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy; Institute for Advanced Biomedical Technologies (ITAB), "G. d'Annunzio" University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy
| | - André Aleman
- University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Sjoerd J H Ebisch
- Department of Neuroscience Imaging and Clinical Sciences, "G. d'Annunzio" University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy; Institute for Advanced Biomedical Technologies (ITAB), "G. d'Annunzio" University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy
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8
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Quadflieg S, Westmoreland K. Making Sense of Other People’s Encounters: Towards an Integrative Model of Relational Impression Formation. JOURNAL OF NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s10919-019-00295-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
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9
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Raij TT, Riekki TJJ, Rikandi E, Mäntylä T, Kieseppä T, Suvisaari J. Activation of the motivation-related ventral striatum during delusional experience. Transl Psychiatry 2018; 8:283. [PMID: 30563960 PMCID: PMC6298954 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-018-0347-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2018] [Revised: 11/10/2018] [Accepted: 11/25/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Delusion is the most characteristic symptom of psychosis, occurring in almost all first-episode psychosis patients. The motivational salience hypothesis suggests delusion to originate from the experience of abnormal motivational salience. Whether the motivation-related brain circuitries are activated during the actual delusional experience remains, however, unknown. We used a forced-choice answering tree at random intervals during functional magnetic resonance imaging to capture delusional and non-delusional spontaneous experiences in patients with first-episode psychosis (n = 31) or clinical high-risk state (n = 7). The motivation-related brain regions were identified by an automated meta-analysis of 149 studies. Thirteen first-episode patients reported both delusional and non-delusional spontaneous experiences. In these patients, delusional experiences were related to stronger activation of the ventral striatum in both hemispheres. This activation overlapped with the most strongly motivation-related brain regions. These findings provide an empirical link between the actual delusional experience and the motivational salience hypothesis. Further use and development of the present methods in localizing the neurobiological basis of the most characteristic symptoms may be useful in the search for etiopathogenic pathways that result in psychotic disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tuukka T. Raij
- 0000 0000 9950 5666grid.15485.3dDepartment of Psychiatry, Helsinki University and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland ,0000000108389418grid.5373.2Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering and Advanced Magnetic Imaging Center, Aalto University School of Science, Espoo, Finland
| | - Tapani J. J. Riekki
- 0000 0004 0410 2071grid.7737.4Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Eva Rikandi
- 0000000108389418grid.5373.2Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering and Advanced Magnetic Imaging Center, Aalto University School of Science, Espoo, Finland ,0000 0004 0410 2071grid.7737.4Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland ,0000 0001 1013 0499grid.14758.3fMental Health Unit, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Teemu Mäntylä
- 0000000108389418grid.5373.2Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering and Advanced Magnetic Imaging Center, Aalto University School of Science, Espoo, Finland ,0000 0004 0410 2071grid.7737.4Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland ,0000 0001 1013 0499grid.14758.3fMental Health Unit, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Tuula Kieseppä
- 0000 0000 9950 5666grid.15485.3dDepartment of Psychiatry, Helsinki University and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland ,0000 0001 1013 0499grid.14758.3fMental Health Unit, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland ,0000 0004 0410 2071grid.7737.4Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Jaana Suvisaari
- 0000 0001 1013 0499grid.14758.3fMental Health Unit, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland
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10
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Okruszek Ł, Wordecha M, Jarkiewicz M, Kossowski B, Lee J, Marchewka A. Brain correlates of recognition of communicative interactions from biological motion in schizophrenia. Psychol Med 2018; 48:1862-1871. [PMID: 29173243 DOI: 10.1017/s0033291717003385] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Recognition of communicative interactions is a complex social cognitive ability which is associated with a specific neural activity in healthy individuals. However, neural correlates of communicative interaction processing from whole-body motion have not been known in patients with schizophrenia (SCZ). Therefore, the current study aims to examine the neural activity associated with recognition of communicative interactions in SCZ by using displays of the dyadic interactions downgraded to minimalistic point-light presentations. METHODS Twenty-six healthy controls (HC) and 25 SCZ were asked to judge whether two agents presented only by point-light displays were communicating or acting independently. Task-related activity and functional connectivity of brain structures were examined with General Linear Model and Generalized Psychophysiological Interaction approach, respectively. RESULTS HC were significantly more efficient in recognizing each type of action than SCZ. At the neural level, the activity of the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) was observed to be higher in HC compared with SCZ for communicative v. individual action processing. Importantly, increased connectivity of the right pSTS with structures associated with mentalizing (left pSTS) and mirroring networks (left frontal areas) was observed in HC, but not in SCZ, during the presentation of social interactions. CONCLUSION Under-recruitment of the right pSTS, a structure known to have a pivotal role in social processing, may also be of importance for higher-order social cognitive deficits in SCZ. Furthermore, decreased task-related connectivity of the right pSTS may result in reduced use of additional sources of information (for instance motor resonance signals) during social cognitive processing in schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ł Okruszek
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
| | - M Wordecha
- Clinical Neuroscience Lab, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - M Jarkiewicz
- Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Warsaw, Poland
| | - B Kossowski
- Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - J Lee
- Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - A Marchewka
- Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
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11
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Mier D, Eisenacher S, Rausch F, Englisch S, Gerchen MF, Zamoscik V, Meyer-Lindenberg A, Zink M, Kirsch P. Aberrant activity and connectivity of the posterior superior temporal sulcus during social cognition in schizophrenia. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 2017; 267:597-610. [PMID: 27770284 DOI: 10.1007/s00406-016-0737-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2016] [Accepted: 09/25/2016] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Schizophrenia is associated with significant impairments in social cognition. These impairments have been shown to go along with altered activation of the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS). However, studies that investigate connectivity of pSTS during social cognition in schizophrenia are sparse. Twenty-two patients with schizophrenia and 22 matched healthy controls completed a social-cognitive task for functional magnetic resonance imaging that allows the investigation of affective Theory of Mind (ToM), emotion recognition and the processing of neutral facial expressions. Moreover, a resting-state measurement was taken. Patients with schizophrenia performed worse in the social-cognitive task (main effect of group). In addition, a group by social-cognitive processing interaction was revealed for activity, as well as for connectivity during the social-cognitive task, i.e., patients with schizophrenia showed hyperactivity of right pSTS during neutral face processing, but hypoactivity during emotion recognition and affective ToM. In addition, hypoconnectivity between right and left pSTS was revealed for affective ToM, but not for neutral face processing or emotion recognition. No group differences in connectivity from right to left pSTS occurred during resting state. This pattern of aberrant activity and connectivity of the right pSTS during social cognition might form the basis of false-positive perceptions of emotions and intentions and could contribute to the emergence and sustainment of delusions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniela Mier
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany.
| | - Sarah Eisenacher
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Franziska Rausch
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Susanne Englisch
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Martin Fungisai Gerchen
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Vera Zamoscik
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Mathias Zink
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Peter Kirsch
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg/Medical Faculty Mannheim, J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany
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12
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Bell V, Mills KL, Modinos G, Wilkinson S. Rethinking Social Cognition in Light of Psychosis: Reciprocal Implications for Cognition and Psychopathology. Clin Psychol Sci 2017; 5:537-550. [PMID: 28533946 PMCID: PMC5437982 DOI: 10.1177/2167702616677079] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
The positive symptoms of psychosis largely involve the experience of illusory social actors and yet our current measures of social cognition, at best, only weakly predict their presence. We review evidence to suggest that the range of current approaches in social cognition is not sufficient to explain the fundamentally social nature of these experiences. We argue that social agent representation is an important organising principle for understanding social cognition and that alterations in social agent representation may be a factor in the formation of delusions and hallucination in psychosis. We evaluate the feasibility of this approach in light of clinical and non-clinical studies, developmental research, cognitive anthropology and comparative psychology. We conclude with recommendations for empirical testing of specific hypotheses and how studies of social cognition could more fully capture the extent of social reasoning and experience in both psychosis and more prosaic mental states.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vaughan Bell
- Division of Psychiatry, University College London, 6th Floor, Maple House, 149 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1T 7NF, UK
| | - Kathryn L Mills
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, 17 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AR, UK.
| | - Gemma Modinos
- Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, Denmark Hill, SE5 8AF, UK.
| | - Sam Wilkinson
- Department of Philosophy, Durham University, 50 Old Elvet, Durham, DH1 3HN, UK.
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13
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Quadflieg S, Koldewyn K. The neuroscience of people watching: how the human brain makes sense of other people's encounters. Ann N Y Acad Sci 2017; 1396:166-182. [DOI: 10.1111/nyas.13331] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2016] [Revised: 02/13/2017] [Accepted: 02/15/2017] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Susanne Quadflieg
- School of Experimental Psychology; University of Bristol; Bristol United Kingdom
| | - Kami Koldewyn
- School of Psychology; Bangor University; Bangor United Kingdom
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14
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Abu-Akel AM, Apperly IA, Wood SJ, Hansen PC. Autism and psychosis expressions diametrically modulate the right temporoparietal junction. Soc Neurosci 2016; 12:506-518. [DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2016.1190786] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Ian A. Apperly
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, U.K
| | - Stephen J. Wood
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, U.K
- Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, University of Melbourne and Melbourne Health, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Peter C. Hansen
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, U.K
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15
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Abstract
BACKGROUND Deficits in the perception of social cues are common in schizophrenia and predict functional outcome. While effective communication depends on deciphering both verbal and non-verbal features, work on non-verbal communication in the disorder is scarce. METHOD This behavioural study of 29 individuals with schizophrenia and 25 demographically matched controls used silent video-clips to examine gestural identification, its contextual modulation and related metacognitive representations. RESULTS In accord with our principal hypothesis, we observed that individuals with schizophrenia exhibited a preserved ability to identify archetypal gestures and did not differentially infer communicative intent from incidental movements. However, patients were more likely than controls to perceive gestures as self-referential when confirmatory evidence was ambiguous. Furthermore, the severity of their current hallucinatory experience inversely predicted their confidence ratings associated with these self-referential judgements. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest a deficit in the contextual refinement of social-cue processing in schizophrenia that is potentially attributable to impaired monitoring of a mirror mechanism underlying intentional judgements, or to an incomplete semantic representation of gestural actions. Non-verbal communication may be improved in patients through psychotherapeutic interventions that include performance and perception of gestures in group interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- T P White
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience,De Crespigny Park,London,UK
| | - F Borgan
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience,De Crespigny Park,London,UK
| | - O Ralley
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience,De Crespigny Park,London,UK
| | - S S Shergill
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience,De Crespigny Park,London,UK
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17
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Abstract
Over 70 years since the first description of the disease, disrupted social behavior remains a core clinical feature of autistic spectrum disorder. The complex etiology of the disorder portends the need for a better understanding of the brain mechanisms that enable social behaviors, particularly those that are relevant to autism which is characterized by a failure to develop peer relationships, difficulty with emotional reciprocity and imitative play, and disrupted language and communication skills. Toward this end, the current review will examine recent progress that has been made toward understanding the neural mechanisms underlying consociate social attachments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gül Dölen
- a Department of Neuroscience, Brain Science Institute, Wendy Klag Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities , Johns Hopkins University , Baltimore , MD , USA
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18
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Crespi BJ, Go MC. Diametrical diseases reflect evolutionary-genetic tradeoffs: Evidence from psychiatry, neurology, rheumatology, oncology and immunology. Evol Med Public Health 2015; 2015:216-53. [PMID: 26354001 PMCID: PMC4600345 DOI: 10.1093/emph/eov021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2015] [Accepted: 08/17/2015] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Tradeoffs centrally mediate the expression of human adaptations. We propose that tradeoffs also influence the prevalence and forms of human maladaptation manifest in disease. By this logic, increased risk for one set of diseases commonly engenders decreased risk for another, diametric, set of diseases. We describe evidence for such diametric sets of diseases from epidemiological, genetic and molecular studies in four clinical domains: (i) psychiatry (autism vs psychotic-affective conditions), (ii) rheumatology (osteoarthritis vs osteoporosis), (iii) oncology and neurology (cancer vs neurodegenerative disorders) and (iv) immunology (autoimmunity vs infectious disease). Diametric disorders are important to recognize because genotypes or environmental factors that increase risk for one set of disorders protect from opposite disorders, thereby providing novel and direct insights into disease causes, prevention and therapy. Ascertaining the mechanisms that underlie disease-related tradeoffs should also indicate means of circumventing or alleviating them, and thus reducing the incidence and impacts of human disease in a more general way.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Matthew C Go
- Department of Biological Sciences; Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6 Present address: Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 109 Davenport Hall, 607 S Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
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19
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Dölen G. Oxytocin: parallel processing in the social brain? J Neuroendocrinol 2015; 27:516-35. [PMID: 25912257 DOI: 10.1111/jne.12284] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2014] [Revised: 03/29/2015] [Accepted: 04/07/2015] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Early studies attempting to disentangle the network complexity of the brain exploited the accessibility of sensory receptive fields to reveal circuits made up of synapses connected both in series and in parallel. More recently, extension of this organisational principle beyond the sensory systems has been made possible by the advent of modern molecular, viral and optogenetic approaches. Here, evidence supporting parallel processing of social behaviours mediated by oxytocin is reviewed. Understanding oxytocinergic signalling from this perspective has significant implications for the design of oxytocin-based therapeutic interventions aimed at disorders such as autism, where disrupted social function is a core clinical feature. Moreover, identification of opportunities for novel technology development will require a better appreciation of the complexity of the circuit-level organisation of the social brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gül Dölen
- Department of Neuroscience, Brain Science Institute, Wendy Klag Center for Developmental Disabilities and Autism, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
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20
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Impaired recognition of communicative interactions from biological motion in schizophrenia. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0116793. [PMID: 25664584 PMCID: PMC4321989 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0116793] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2014] [Accepted: 12/16/2014] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Patients with schizophrenia are deficient in multiple aspects of social cognition, including biological motion perception. In the present study we investigated the ability to read social information from point-light stimuli in schizophrenia. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Participants with paranoid schizophrenia and healthy controls were presented with a biological motion task depicting point-light actions of two agents either engaged in a communicative interaction, or acting independently of each other. For each stimulus, participants were asked to decide whether the two agents were communicating vs. acting independently of each other (task A), and to select the correct action description among five response alternatives (task B). Participants were also presented with a mental rotation task to assess their visuospatial abilities, and with a facial emotion recognition task tapping social cognition. Results revealed that participants with schizophrenia performed overall worse than controls both in discriminating communicative from non-communicative actions (task A) and in selecting which of the 5 response alternatives best described the observed actions (task B). Interestingly, the impaired performance of schizophrenic participants was mainly due to misclassification of non-communicative stimuli as communicative actions. Correlation analysis revealed that visuospatial abilities predicted performance in task A but not in task B, while facial emotion recognition abilities was correlated with performance in both task A and task B. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE These findings are consistent with theories of "overmentalizing" (excessive attribution of intentionality) in schizophrenia, and suggest that processing social information from biological motion does rely on social cognition abilities.
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21
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Crespi BJ. Oxytocin, testosterone, and human social cognition. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2015; 91:390-408. [PMID: 25631363 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12175] [Citation(s) in RCA: 100] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2014] [Revised: 12/15/2014] [Accepted: 12/19/2014] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
I describe an integrative social-evolutionary model for the adaptive significance of the human oxytocinergic system. The model is based on a role for this hormone in the generation and maintenance of social familiarity and affiliation across five homologous, functionally similar, and sequentially co-opted contexts: mothers with offspring, female and male mates, kin groups, individuals with reciprocity partners, and individuals within cooperating and competing social groups defined by culture. In each situation, oxytocin motivates, mediates and rewards the cognitive and behavioural processes that underlie the formation and dynamics of a more or less stable social group, and promotes a relationship between two or more individuals. Such relationships may be positive (eliciting neurological reward, reducing anxiety and thus indicating fitness-enhancing effects), or negative (increasing anxiety and distress, and thus motivating attempts to alleviate a problematic, fitness-reducing social situation). I also present evidence that testosterone exhibits opposite effects from oxytocin on diverse aspects of cognition and behaviour, most generally by favouring self-oriented, asocial and antisocial behaviours. I apply this model for effects of oxytocin and testosterone to understanding human psychological disorders centrally involving social behaviour. Reduced oxytocin and higher testosterone levels have been associated with under-developed social cognition, especially in autism. By contrast, some combination of oxytocin increased above normal levels, and lower testosterone, has been reported in a notable number of studies of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression, and, in some cases, higher oxytocin involves maladaptively 'hyper-developed' social cognition in these conditions. This pattern of findings suggests that human social cognition and behaviour are structured, in part, by joint and opposing effects of oxytocin and testosterone, and that extremes of such joint effects partially mediate risks and phenotypes of autism and psychotic-affective conditions. These considerations have direct implications for the development of therapies for alleviating disorders of social cognition, and for understanding how such disorders are associated with the evolution of human cognitive-affective architecture.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bernard J Crespi
- Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada
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Ciaramidaro A, Bölte S, Schlitt S, Hainz D, Poustka F, Weber B, Bara BG, Freitag C, Walter H. Schizophrenia and autism as contrasting minds: neural evidence for the hypo-hyper-intentionality hypothesis. Schizophr Bull 2015; 41:171-9. [PMID: 25210055 PMCID: PMC4266299 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbu124] [Citation(s) in RCA: 80] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Abstract
Both schizophrenia (SCZ) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are characterized by mentalizing problems and associated neural dysfunction of the social brain. However, the deficits in mental state attribution are somehow opposed: Whereas patients with SCZ tend to over-attribute intentions to agents and physical events ("hyper-intentionality"), patients with autism treat people as devoid of intentions ("hypo-intentionality"). Here we aimed to investigate whether this hypo-hyper-intentionality hypothesis can be supported by neural evidence during a mentalizing task. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigated the neural responses and functional connectivity during reading others intention. Scanning was performed in 23 individuals with ASD, 18 with paranoid SCZ and 23 gender and IQ matched control subjects. Both clinical groups showed reduced brain activation compared to controls for the contrast intentional vs physical information processing in left posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) and ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) for SCZ, and right pSTS in ASD. As predicted, these effects were caused in a group specific way: Relative increased activation for physical information processing in SCZ that was also correlated with positive PANNS score and relative decreased activation for intentional information processing in ASD. Additionally, we could demonstrate opposed connectivity patterns between the right pSTS and vMPFC in the clinical groups, ie, increased for SCZ, decreased for ASD. These findings represent opposed neural signatures in key regions of the social brain as predicted by the hyper-hypo-intentionality hypothesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angela Ciaramidaro
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, Goethe-University, Frankfurt/M, Germany;
| | - Sven Bölte
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, Goethe-University, Frankfurt/M, Germany,Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (KIND), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Sabine Schlitt
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, Goethe-University, Frankfurt/M, Germany
| | - Daniela Hainz
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, Goethe-University, Frankfurt/M, Germany
| | - Fritz Poustka
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, Goethe-University, Frankfurt/M, Germany
| | - Bernhard Weber
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Goethe-University, Frankfurt/M, Germany,Psychiatric University Clinics, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
| | - Bruno G Bara
- Center for Cognitive Science, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Christine Freitag
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, Goethe-University, Frankfurt/M, Germany
| | - Henrik Walter
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany
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Abstract
Patients with schizophrenia not only suffer from prototypical psychotic symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations and from cognitive deficits, but also from tremendous deficits in social functioning. However, little is known about the interplay between the cognitive and the social-cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Our chapter gives an overview on behavioral, as well as functional imaging studies on social cognition in schizophrenia. Main findings on cognitive and motivational deficits in schizophrenia are reviewed and introduced within the context of the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia. The reviewed findings suggest that disturbed "social brain" functioning in schizophrenia, depending on the specific context, can either lead to a neglect of the emotions and intentions of others or to the false attribution of these emotions and intentions in an emotionally neutral social content. We integrate these findings with the current knowledge about aberrant dopaminergic firing in schizophrenia by presenting a comprehensive model explaining core symptoms of the disorder. The main implication of the presented model is that neither cognitive-motivational, nor social-cognitive deficits alone cause schizophrenia symptoms, but that symptoms only emerge by the interplay of disturbed social brain functioning with aberrant dopaminergic firing.
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Brent BK, Seidman LJ, Coombs G, Keshavan MS, Moran JM, Holt DJ. Neural responses during social reflection in relatives of schizophrenia patients: relationship to subclinical delusions. Schizophr Res 2014; 157:292-8. [PMID: 24951401 PMCID: PMC4109724 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2014.05.033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2014] [Revised: 05/21/2014] [Accepted: 05/23/2014] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Deficits in the capacity to reflect about the self and others ("social reflection" [SR]) have been identified in schizophrenia, as well as in people with a genetic or clinical risk for the disorder. However, the neural underpinnings of these abnormalities are incompletely understood. METHODS Responses of a network of brain regions known to be involved in self and other processing (e.g., medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and superior temporal gyrus (STG)) were measured during SR in 16 first-degree, non-psychotic relatives (RELS) of schizophrenia patients and 16 healthy controls (CONS). Because of prior evidence linking dysfunction in this network and delusions, associations between SR-related responses of this network and subclinical delusions (measured using the Peters et al. Delusions Inventory) were also examined. RESULTS Compared with CONS, RELS showed significantly less SR-related activity of the right and left PCC and STG. Moreover, response magnitudes were negatively correlated with levels of delusional thinking across both groups. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that aberrant function of the neural circuitry underpinning SR is associated with the genetic liability to schizophrenia and confers vulnerability to delusional beliefs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin K. Brent
- The Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA,The Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
| | - Larry J. Seidman
- The Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA,The Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
| | - Garth Coombs
- The Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
| | - Matcheri S. Keshavan
- The Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
| | - Joseph M. Moran
- The Center for Brain Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA,U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development, and Engineering Center
| | - Daphne J. Holt
- The HST-MIT Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Charlestown, MA,The Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
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