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Abnormal semantic processing of threat words associated with excitement and hostility symptoms in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 2021; 228:394-402. [PMID: 33549981 PMCID: PMC7988509 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2020.12.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2020] [Revised: 12/14/2020] [Accepted: 12/31/2020] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Schizophrenia (SZ) is associated with devastating emotional, cognitive and language impairments. Understanding the deficits in each domain and their interactions is important for developing novel, targeted psychotherapies. This study tested whether negative-threat word processing is altered in individuals with SZ compared to healthy controls (HC), in relation to SZ symptom severity across domains. METHODS Thirty-one SZ and seventeen HC subjects were scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging while silently reading negative-threat and neutral words. Post-scan, subjects rated the valence of each word. The effects of group (SZ, HC), word type (negative, neutral), task period (early, late), and severity of clinical symptoms (positive, negative, excitement/hostility, cognitive, depression/anxiety), on word valence ratings and brain activation, were analyzed. RESULTS SZ and HC subjects rated negative versus neutral words as more negative. The SZ subgroup with severe versus mild excitement/hostility symptoms rated the negative words as more negative. SZ versus HC subjects hyperactivated left language areas (angular gyrus, middle/inferior temporal gyrus (early period)) and the amygdala (early period) to negative words, and the amygdala (late period) to neutral words. In SZ, activation to negative versus neutral words in left dorsal temporal pole and dorsal anterior cingulate was positively correlated with excitement/hostility scores. CONCLUSIONS A negatively-biased behavioral response to negative-threat words was seen in SZ with severe versus mild excitement/hostility symptoms. The biased behavioral response was mediated by hyperactivation of brain networks associated with semantic processing of emotion concepts. Thus, word-level semantic processing may be a relevant psychotherapeutic target in SZ.
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Pinheiro AP, Rezaii N, Nestor PG, Rauber A, Spencer KM, Niznikiewicz M. Did you or I say pretty, rude or brief? An ERP study of the effects of speaker's identity on emotional word processing. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2016; 153-154:38-49. [PMID: 26894680 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2015.12.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2015] [Revised: 11/19/2015] [Accepted: 12/10/2015] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
During speech comprehension, multiple cues need to be integrated at a millisecond speed, including semantic information, as well as voice identity and affect cues. A processing advantage has been demonstrated for self-related stimuli when compared with non-self stimuli, and for emotional relative to neutral stimuli. However, very few studies investigated self-other speech discrimination and, in particular, how emotional valence and voice identity interactively modulate speech processing. In the present study we probed how the processing of words' semantic valence is modulated by speaker's identity (self vs. non-self voice). Sixteen healthy subjects listened to 420 prerecorded adjectives differing in voice identity (self vs. non-self) and semantic valence (neutral, positive and negative), while electroencephalographic data were recorded. Participants were instructed to decide whether the speech they heard was their own (self-speech condition), someone else's (non-self speech), or if they were unsure. The ERP results demonstrated interactive effects of speaker's identity and emotional valence on both early (N1, P2) and late (Late Positive Potential - LPP) processing stages: compared with non-self speech, self-speech with neutral valence elicited more negative N1 amplitude, self-speech with positive valence elicited more positive P2 amplitude, and self-speech with both positive and negative valence elicited more positive LPP. ERP differences between self and non-self speech occurred in spite of similar accuracy in the recognition of both types of stimuli. Together, these findings suggest that emotion and speaker's identity interact during speech processing, in line with observations of partially dependent processing of speech and speaker information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ana P Pinheiro
- Neuropsychophysiology Laboratory, Psychology Research Center (CIPsi), School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal; Clinical Neuroscience Division, Laboratory of Neuroscience, VA Boston Healthcare System-Brockton Division, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Brockton, MA, United States; Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal.
| | - Neguine Rezaii
- Clinical Neuroscience Division, Laboratory of Neuroscience, VA Boston Healthcare System-Brockton Division, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Brockton, MA, United States
| | - Paul G Nestor
- Clinical Neuroscience Division, Laboratory of Neuroscience, VA Boston Healthcare System-Brockton Division, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Brockton, MA, United States; Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Andréia Rauber
- International Studies in Computational Linguistics, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Kevin M Spencer
- Neural Dynamics Laboratory, Research Service, VA Boston Healthcare System, and Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Margaret Niznikiewicz
- Clinical Neuroscience Division, Laboratory of Neuroscience, VA Boston Healthcare System-Brockton Division, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Brockton, MA, United States
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Perez DL, Pan H, Weisholtz DS, Root JC, Tuescher O, Fischer DB, Butler T, Vago DR, Isenberg N, Epstein J, Landa Y, Smith TE, Savitz AJ, Silbersweig DA, Stern E. Altered threat and safety neural processing linked to persecutory delusions in schizophrenia: a two-task fMRI study. Psychiatry Res 2015; 233. [PMID: 26208746 PMCID: PMC5003172 DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2015.06.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Persecutory delusions are a clinically important symptom in schizophrenia associated with social avoidance and increased violence. Few studies have investigated the neurobiology of persecutory delusions, which is a prerequisite for developing novel treatments. The aim of this two-paradigm functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study is to characterize social "real world" and linguistic threat brain activations linked to persecutory delusions in schizophrenia (n=26) using instructed-fear/safety and emotional word paradigms. Instructed-fear/safety activations correlated to persecutory delusion severity demonstrated significant increased lateral orbitofrontal cortex and visual association cortex activations for the instructed-fear vs. safety and instructed-fear vs. baseline contrasts; decreased lateral orbitofrontal cortex and ventral occipital-temporal cortex activations were observed for the instructed-safety stimuli vs. baseline contrast. The salience network also showed divergent fear and safety cued activations correlated to persecutory delusions. Emotional word paradigm analyses showed positive correlations between persecutory delusion severity and left-lateralized linguistic and hippocampal-parahippocampal activations for the threat vs. neutral word contrast. Visual word form area activations correlated positively with persecutory delusions for both threat and neutral word vs. baseline contrasts. This study links persecutory delusions to enhanced neural processing of threatening stimuli and decreased processing of safety cues, and helps elucidate systems-level activations associated with persecutory delusions in schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- David L. Perez
- Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA
| | - Hong Pan
- Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA,Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Daniel S. Weisholtz
- Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA,Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Department of Neurology, Boston, MA, USA
| | - James C. Root
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, New York, NY, USA
| | - Oliver Tuescher
- University Medical Center Freiburg, Department of Neurology, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany,University Medical Centre Mainz, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Mainz, Germany
| | - David B. Fischer
- Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA
| | - Tracy Butler
- Langone Medical Center, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
| | - David R. Vago
- Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA
| | - Nancy Isenberg
- Neuroscience Institute, Virginia Mason Medical Center, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Jane Epstein
- Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA
| | - Yulia Landa
- Weill Cornell Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, New York, NY, USA
| | - Thomas E. Smith
- New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Adam J. Savitz
- Weill Cornell Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, New York, NY, USA
| | - David A. Silbersweig
- Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA,Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Department of Neurology, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Emily Stern
- Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, 824 Boylston Street, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA; Brigham and Women's Hospital, Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
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