Reduced white matter integrity as a neural correlate of social cognition deficits in schizophrenia

SCHIZOPHRENIA RESEARCH

卷:119

Article

Miyata, Jun¹  Yamada, Makiko¹  Namiki, Chihiro¹  Hirao, Kazuyuki¹  Saze, Teruyasu¹  Fujiwara, Hironobu¹  Shimizu, Mitsuaki¹  Kawada, Ryosaku¹  Fukuyama, Hidenao²  Sawamoto, Nobukatsu²  Hayashi, Takuji¹  Murai, Toshiya¹ 

[1] Kyoto Univ, Dept Neuropsychiat, Grad Sch Med, Kyoto 6068507, Japan

[2] Kyoto Univ, Human Brain Res Ctr, Grad Sch Med, Kyoto 6068507, Japan

关键词: Corpus callosum;    Diffusion tensor imaging;    Disconnection hypothesis;    Facial emotion perception;    Inferior longitudinal fasciculus;    Tract-based spatial statistics;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.schres.2009.12.038

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Background: The pathology of schizophrenia is thought to involve multiple gray and white matter regions. A number of studies have revealed impaired social cognition in schizophrenia. Some evidence suggests an association of this social cognition deficit with gray matter reductions in 'social brain' areas. However, no study has yet revealed the association between social cognition abilities and white matter abnormalities in schizophrenia patients. Methods: Twenty-six schizophrenia patients and 27 healthy controls underwent the Perception of Affect Task (PAT), which consisted of four subtasks measuring different aspects of emotion attribution. Voxelwise group comparison of white matter fractional anisotropy (FA) was performed using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). The relation between impaired social cognition ability and FA reduction was examined in patients for each subtask, using simple regression analysis within brain areas that showed a significant FA reduction in patients compared with controls. The same correlational analysis was also performed for healthy controls in the whole brain. Results: Schizophrenia patients showed reduced emotion attribution ability compared with controls in all four subtasks. The facial emotion perception subtask showed a significant correlation with FA reductions in the left occipital white matter region and left posterior callosal region. The correlational analyses in healthy controls revealed no significant correlation of FA with any of the PAT subtasks. Conclusions: Our voxelwise correlational analysis of white matter provided a potential neural basis for the social cognition impairments in schizophrenia, in support of the disconnection hypothesis. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free