title: Brain activation induced by psychological stress in patients with schizophrenia.
abstract: Environmental influences are critical for the expression of genes putatively related to the behavioral and cognitive phenotypes of schizophrenia. Among such factors, psychosocial stress has been proposed to play a major role in the expression of symptoms. However, it is unsettled how stress interacts with pathophysiological pathways to produce the disease. We studied 21 patients with schizophrenia and 21 healthy controls aged 18 to 50years with 3T-fMRI, in which a period of 6min of resting state acquisition was followed by a block design, with three blocks of 1-min control-task, 1-min stress-task and 1-min rest after-task. Self-report of stress and PANSS were measured. Limbic structures were activated in schizophrenia patients by simple tasks and remained active during, and shortly after stress. In controls, stress-related brain activation was more time-focused, and restricted to the stressful task itself. Negative symptom severity was inversely related to activation of anterior cingulum and orbitofrontal cortex. Results might represent the neurobiological aspect of hyper-reactivity to normal stressful situations previously described in schizophrenia, thus providing evidence on the involvement of limbic areas in the response to stress in schizophrenia. Patients present a pattern of persistent limbic activation probably contributing to hypervigilance and subsequent psychotic thought distortions.
authors.affiliation: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina; Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Department of Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Fundación Lucha contra Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia (FLENI), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: M N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Castro
authors.affiliation: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina; Fundación Lucha contra Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia (FLENI), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Villarreal
authors.affiliation: Fundación Lucha contra Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia (FLENI), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bolotinsky
authors.affiliation: Fundación Lucha contra Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia (FLENI), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Papávero
authors.affiliation: Fundación Lucha contra Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia (FLENI), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Goldschmidt
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Fundación Lucha contra Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia (FLENI), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: E Y
authors.initials: EY
authors.lastname: Costanzo
authors.affiliation: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina; Department of Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Fundación Lucha contra Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia (FLENI), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Drucaroff
authors.affiliation: Fundación Lucha contra Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia (FLENI), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wainsztein
authors.affiliation: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina; Department of Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Fundación Lucha contra Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia (FLENI), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: de Achával
authors.affiliation: Fundación Lucha contra Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia (FLENI), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pahissa
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Universitätsklinikum Jena, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: K-J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Bär
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Leonard M. Millier School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, United States.
authors.forename: C B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Nemeroff
authors.affiliation: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina; Department of Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Fundación Lucha contra Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia (FLENI), Buenos Aires, Argentina; Department of Neurophysiology, School of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Electronic address: sguinjoan@fleni.org.ar.
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Guinjoan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: Autonomic nervous system; Endophenotypes; Environment; Limbic system; Psychosis; fMRI