Disrupted relationship between “resting state” connectivity and task-evoked activity during social perception in schizophrenia

Abstract

Schizophrenia has been described as a self-disorder, whereas social deficits are key features of the illness. Changes in "resting state" activity of brain networks involved in self-related processing have been consistently reported in schizophrenia, but their meaning for social perception deficits remains poorly understood. Here, we applied a novel approach investigating the relationship between task-evoked neural activity during social perception and functional organization of self-related brain networks during a "resting state". "Resting state" functional MRI was combined with task-related functional MRI using a social perception experiment. Twenty-one healthy control participants (HC) and 21 out-patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (SCH) were included. There were no significant differences concerning age, IQ, education and gender between the groups. Results showed reduced "resting state" functional connectivity between ventromedial prefrontal cortex and dorsal posterior cingulate cortex in SCH, compared to HC. During social perception, neural activity in dorsal posterior cingulate cortex and behavioral data indicated impaired congruence coding of social stimuli in SCH. Task-evoked activity during social perception in dorsal posterior cingulate cortex co-varied with dorsal posterior cingulate cortex-ventromedial prefrontal cortex functional connectivity during a "resting state" in HC, but not in SCH. Task-evoked activity also correlated with negative symptoms in SCH. These preliminary findings, showing disrupted prediction of social perception measures by "resting state" functioning of self-related brain networks in schizophrenia, provide important insight in the hypothesized link between self and social deficits. They also shed light on the meaning of "resting state" changes for tasks such as social perception.

Linking resting‐state networks and social cognition in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

“…Although task-evoked activity generally shows high concordance with resting-state activity, there still may be key differences in the patterns of functional connectivity associated with each, as well as their external correlates (Lynch et al, 2018). This lack of concordance between the two imaging methods might be especially true for patients with schizophrenia (Ebisch et al, 2018). Thus, the lack of connection between resting-state activity and task-evoked activity might explain the lack of correlations with performance in the current study.…”

“…This may be due to the fact that the empirical link between DMN and social cognition is mainly based on task-based fMRI studies (e.g., Mahy et al, 2014;Santos et al, 2016;Schilbach et al, 2008), as opposed to resting state as used here. This lack of concordance between the two imaging methods might be especially true for patients with schizophrenia (Ebisch et al, 2018). This lack of concordance between the two imaging methods might be especially true for patients with schizophrenia (Ebisch et al, 2018).…”

Viewing Ambiguous Social Interactions Increases Functional Connectivity between Frontal and Temporal Nodes of the Social Brain

“…Clarifying the properties of social brain networks is of great interest, as they have been linked to clinically relevant disruptions to social behavior: for example, autism spectrum disorders ( Hull et al, 2016 ), schizophrenia ( Ebisch et al, 2018 ; Viviano et al, 2018 ), and social anxiety disorder ( Liao et al, 2010 ; Rabany et al, 2017 ; Zhu et al, 2017 ). However, most descriptions of social networks have focused on either individual nodes or the networks at rest.…”

Mathematics and the Brain: A Category Theoretical Approach to Go Beyond the Neural Correlates of Consciousness

“…Secondly, assuming TTC is the right way to understand consciousness, then knowledge of how expansion functor is supported by neuronal mechanisms to realize nonadditive rest–stimulus interaction may point to novel therapeutic techniques and anatomical targets for brain stimulation. Such stimulation techniques may be able to restore the brain functions underlying loss of consciousness in coma patients and altered consciousness in psychiatric patients suffering from schizophrenia [ 92 , 93 ], bipolar disorder (with mania and depression) [ 6 , 94 ], and major depressive disorder [ 5 ]. These patients show changes in their spontaneous activity which, according to TTC, may be related to the integration between inclusion and expansion functor.…”