Neural Correlates of Schizophrenia Negative Symptoms: Distinct Subtypes Impact Dissociable Brain Circuits.
BACKGROUND
The negative symptoms of schizophrenia include deficits in emotional expression and motivation. These deficits are stable over the course of illness and respond poorly to current medications. Previous studies have focused on negative symptoms as a single category; however, individual symptoms might be related to separate neurological disturbances. We analyzed data from the Functional Biomedical Informatics Research Network dataset to explore the relationship between individual negative symptoms and functional brain activity during an auditory oddball task.


METHODS
Functional magnetic resonance imaging was conducted on 89 schizophrenia patients and 106 healthy controls during a two-tone auditory oddball task. Blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal during the target tone was correlated with severity of five negative symptom domains from the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms.


RESULTS
The severity of alogia, avolition/apathy and anhedonia/asociality was negatively correlated with BOLD activity in distinct sets of brain regions associated with processing of the target tone, including basal ganglia, thalamus, insular cortex, prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate and parietal cortex.


CONCLUSIONS
Individual symptoms were related to different patterns of functional activation during the oddball task, suggesting that individual symptoms might arise from distinct neural mechanisms. This work has potential to inform interventions that target these symptom-related neural disruptions.
Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C., USA.
Joseph J
JJ
Shaffer
Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C., USA.
Michael J
MJ
Peterson
Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, University of Colorado, Denver, Colo., USA.
Mary Agnes
MA
McMahon
Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C., USA; Duke/University of North Carolina Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Durham, N.C., USA.
Joshua
J
Bizzell
The Mind Research Network, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N. Mex., USA; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N. Mex., USA.
Vince
V
Calhoun
Departments of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of California Irvine, Irvine, Calif., USA.
Theo G M
TG
van Erp
Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif., USA.
Judith M
JM
Ford
Department of Psychiatry, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo., USA.
John
J
Lauriello
Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn., USA.
Kelvin O
KO
Lim
Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Mass., USA.
Dara S
DS
Manoach
Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Calif., USA.
Sarah C
SC
McEwen
Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif., USA.
Daniel H
DH
Mathalon
Department of Neuroscience, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA.
Daniel
D
O'Leary
Departments of Psychiatry, University of California Irvine, Irvine, Calif., USA; Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif., USA.
Steven G
SG
Potkin
Departments of Psychiatry, University of California Irvine, Irvine, Calif., USA.
Adrian
A
Preda
Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Ga., USA.
Jessica
J
Turner
Duke/University of North Carolina Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Durham, N.C., USA.
Jim
J
Voyvodic
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass., USA; Department of Psychiatry, VA Medical Center Brockton, Brockton, Mass., USA.
Cynthia G
CG
Wible
Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C., USA; Duke/University of North Carolina Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Durham, N.C., USA.
Aysenil
A
Belger
Auditory oddball; Functional Biomedical Informatics Research Network; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Negative symptoms; Schizophrenia