Inhibitory Top-Down Control Deficits in Schizophrenia With Auditory Verbal Hallucinations: A Go/NoGo Task

Abstract

Objective: Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH), with unclear mechanisms, cause extreme distresses to schizophrenia patients. Deficits of inhibitory top-down control may be linked to AVH. Therefore, in this study, we focused on inhibitory top-down control in schizophrenia patients with AVH.Method: The present study recruited 40 schizophrenia patients, including 20 AVH patients and 20 non-AVH patients, and 23 healthy controls. We employed event-related potentials to investigate the N2 and P3 amplitude and latency differences among these participants during a Go/NoGo task.Results: Relative to healthy controls, the two patient groups observed longer reaction time (RT) and reduced accuracy. The two patient groups had smaller NoGo P3 amplitude than the healthy controls, and the AVH patients showed smaller NoGo P3 amplitude than the non-AVH patients. In all the groups, the parietal area showed smaller NoGo P3 than frontal and central areas. However, no significant difference was found in N2 and Go P3 amplitude between the three groups.Conclusions: AVH patients might have worse inhibitory top-down control, which might be involved in the occurrence of AVH. Hopefully, our results could enhance understanding of the pathology of AVH.

Using in silico perturbational approach to identify critical areas in schizophrenia

“…All these areas have been proven to be altered in schizophrenia, in particular areas within the prefrontal cortex and the anterior-cingulate (Bersani et al 2014; Rolls et al 2008; Wang et al 2015; Zhou et al 2005). Moreover, differences in the frequency of recruitment of such network of areas is in line with the view of schizophrenia as a pathology determined by an impaired top-down regulation (Sun et al 2021).…”

“…Moreover, differences in the frequency of recruitment of such network of areas is in line with the view of schizophrenia as a pathology determined by an impaired top-down regulation (Sun et al 2021).…”

“…All these areas have been proven to be altered in schizophrenia, in particular areas within the prefrontal cortex and the anterior-cingulate (Bersani et al 2014;Rolls et al 2008;Wang et al 2015;Zhou et al 2005). Moreover, differences in the frequency of recruitment of such network of areas is in line with the view of schizophrenia as a pathology determined by an impaired top-down regulation (Sun et al 2021). Notably, differences found here between the healthy and the pathological condition could not be explained by differences in static measures of functional connectivity or strength, proving the importance of integrating those measurements with dynamical analysis that do take into account the dimension of time.…”

Multitarget high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation improves response inhibition more than single-target high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation in healthy participants

“…Prior studies have shown that response inhibition is related to decision-making (Xu et al, 2020), working memory (Alderson et al, 2017), impulse control (Mayer et al, 2020), etc. Additionally, many psychiatric disorders are associated with deficits in response inhibition (Hughes et al, 2012;Steele et al, 2014;van Rooij et al, 2015;Gowda et al, 2019;Alizadehgoradel et al, 2020;Sun et al, 2021). In recent years, studies have increasingly focused on the neural substrates of response inhibition and have demonstrated that it is based on the right hemispheric fronto-basal ganglia network, including the right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG), the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), and the basal ganglia (Aron and Poldrack, 2006;Aron et al, 2016;Hannah and Aron, 2021).…”

Distinct Brain Dynamic Functional Connectivity Patterns in Schizophrenia Patients With and Without Auditory Verbal Hallucinations

“…Clinically, it is often manifested as different syndromes with different symptoms, involving various disorders in perception, thinking, emotion, behavior and other aspects, as well as the disharmony between psychological activities and the environment. Among the above-mentioned symptoms, auditory verbal hallucinations probably occurred among 60–80% of schizophrenia patients ( Saha et al, 2005 ; Petrolini et al, 2020 ; Sun et al, 2021 ). Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) is one of the main symptoms of schizophrenia and serves as an important clinical index for the diagnosis of schizophrenia.…”