Intrinsic cerebellar functional connectivity of social cognition and theory of mind in first-episode psychosis patients

Abstract

Neuroimaging studies have revealed how intrinsic dysconnectivity among cortical regions of the mentalizing network (MENT) and the mirror neuron system (MNS) could explain the theory of mind (ToM) deficit in schizophrenia patients. However, despite the concurrent involvement of the cerebellum with the cortex in social cognition, the dysfunction in intrinsic interplay between the cerebellar nodes of MENT/MNS and the cortex in schizophrenia patients remains unknown. Thus, we aimed to investigate whether resting-state cerebello–cortical dysconnectivity exists in first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients in relationship with their ToM deficit. A total of 37 FEP patients and 80 healthy controls (HCs) underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Using a priori-defined cerebellar seeds that functionally connect to the MENT (right crus II) and MNS (right crus I), we compared cerebello–cortical functional connectivities (FCs) in FEP patients and HCs. Correlations between cerebello–parietal connectivities and ToM performance were investigated in FEP patients. FEP patients showed hyperconnectivity between the right crus II and anterior cingulate gyrus and between the right crus I and supplementary motor area, bilateral postcentral gyrus, and right central/parietal operculum (CO/PO). Hypoconnectivity was found between the right crus II and left supramarginal gyrus (SMG) in FEP patients. FCs between the right crus II and left SMG and between the right crus I and right CO/PO were significantly correlated with ToM scores in FEP patients. In accordance with the “cognitive dysmetria” hypothesis, our results highlight the importance of cerbello-cortical dysconnectivities in understanding social cognitive deficits in schizophrenia patients.

Case Report: Zolpidem’s paradoxical restorative action: A case report of functional brain imaging

“…Interestingly, while we observed a widespread reduction in functional connectivity within the left dentato-thalamo-cortical loop in the immediate postoperative images, the subcortical functional connectivity between the left striatum and left GPi as well as the left GPi and left t(VA) increased, indicating probable "pathological functional hyperconnectivity. " Although the observed disruption of the cortico-striato-pallido-thalamo-cortical loop may result in subcortical functional hyperconnectivity and may appear to be unexpected, this effect has been previously described in several neurological disorders, such as traumatic brain injury (Amir et al, 2021), multiple sclerosis (Hawellek et al, 2011), cerebrovascular accidents (Nicolo et al, 2015), epilepsy (O'Muircheartaigh et al, 2012), and Parkinson's disease (Gorges et al, 2015) as well as in psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia (Park et al, 2021) and bipolar disorder (Guo et al, 2021).…”

The mirror mechanism in schizophrenia: A systematic review and qualitative meta-analysis

“…We included 29 studies ( 73 – 103 ) with 1,542 participants for the primary outcome and 3 studies ( 104 – 106 ) with 126 participants for the secondary outcome. Overall, 32 studies were included in this systematic review.…”

Efficiency of heterogenous functional connectomes explains variance in callous-unemotional traits after computational lesioning of cortical midline and salience regions

“…However, lesioning other salience regions revealed a negative association of the right anterior insula and left supramarginal gyrus with CU traits. Where the right anterior insula is involved in attention (Eckert et al, 2009) involving interoceptive awareness (Craig, 2009, 2011) that aids both emotion and cognitive functioning (Touroutoglou et al, 2012), the left supramarginal gyrus is primarily involved in phonological processing (Celsis et al, 1999), though hypoactivity of this region has been associated with social cognition impairments in autism (Hadjikhani et al, 2006) and early psychosis (Park et al, 2021). The negative impact on the functional connectome after removing these nodes may indicate an overreliance on these regions for similar processes that would be distributed across the amygdala and other cortical midline structures, leading to decreased whole-brain global efficiency.…”