Dynamic causal modeling of eye gaze processing in schizophrenia

SCHIZOPHRENIA RESEARCH

卷:229

Article

Tso, Ivy F.¹  Angstadt, Mike¹  Rutherford, Saige¹  Peltier, Scott²  Diwadkar, Vaibhav A.³  Taylor, Stephan F.¹ 

[1] Univ Michigan, Dept Psychiat, 4250 Plymouth Rd, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA

[2] Univ Michigan, Funct MRI Lab, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA

[3] Wayne State Univ, Dept Psychiat & Behav Neurosci, Detroit, MI 48202 USA

关键词: Psychosis;    Neuroimaging;    fMRI;    Effective connectivity;    Social cognition;    Face processing;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.schres.2020.11.012

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Background: Abnormal eye gaze perception is related to symptoms and social functioning in schizophrenia. However, little is known about the brain network mechanisms underlying these abnormalities. Here, weemployed dynamic causal modeling (DCM) of fMRI data to discover aberrant effective connectivity within networks associated with eye gaze processing in schizophrenia. Methods: Twenty-seven patients (schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder, SZ) and 22 healthy controls (HC) completed an eye gaze processing task during fMRI. Participants viewed faces with different gaze angles and performed explicit gaze discrimination (Gaze: Looking at you? yes/no) or implicit gaze processing (Gender: male or female?). Four brain regions, the secondary visual cortex (Vis), posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), inferior parietal lobule (IPL), and posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) were identified as nodes for subsequent DCM analysis. Results: SZ and HC showed similar generative model structure, but SZ showed altered connectivity for specific self-connections, inter-regional connections during all gaze processing (reduced excitatory bottom-up and enhanced inhibitory top-down connections), and modulation by explicit gaze discrimination (increased frontal inhibition of visual cortex). Altered effective connectivity was significantly associated with poorer social cognition and functioning. Conclusions: General gaze processing in SZ is associated with distributed cortical dysfunctions and bidirectional connectivity between regions, while explicit gaze discrimination involves predominantly top-down abnormalities in the visual system. These results suggest plausible neural mechanisms underpinning gaze processing deficits and may serve as bio-markers for intervention. (c) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free