Neural Correlates of Formal Thought Disorder Dimensions in Psychosis

Abstract

Background and Hypothesis Formal thought disorder (FTD) is a core symptom of psychosis, but its neural correlates remain poorly understood. This study tested whether four FTD dimensions differ in their association with brain perfusion and brain structure. Study Design This cross-sectional study investigated 110 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders using 3T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The Thought and Language Disorder scale (TALD) was utilized, which comprises four subscales: Objective Positive (OP), Objective Negative (ON), Subjective Positive (SP), and Subjective Negative (SN). Resting-state cerebral blood flow (rsCBF), cortical thickness (CortTh), gray matter volume (GMV), and diffusion MRI tractography were tested for associations with TALD subscales controlling for age, medication, total intracranial volume, and for variance of the 3 other TALD subscales. Study Results Following Bonferroni correction, the FTD dimensions presented distinct neural correlates. OP scores were associated with increased rsCBF and increased GMV in the right cerebellum lingual gyrus. Higher SP scores were linked to increased GMV in bilateral prefrontal cortex. In contrast, ON was associated with increased GMV in the right premotor cortex. At more liberal statistical thresholds, higher SP was associated with increased CortTh in the right inferior frontal gyrus, whereas SN scores were linked to decreased GMV in the right prefrontal lobe, the left inferior temporal gyrus, and the left supplementary motor area. Unadjusted analyses mostly corroborated these findings. Conclusion These findings stress the heterogeneity in FTD, suggesting distinct neural patterns for specific FTD experiences. In sum, FTD in psychosis may require distinct treatment strategies and further mechanistic investigations on single-item levels.

The pathobiology of psychomotor slowing in psychosis: altered cortical excitability and connectivity

“…A proportion of this sample was included in reports on grey matter structure in catatonia or structural brain correlates of formal thought disorder. 60 , 61 …”

Some Psychometric Properties of Lithuanian Thinking and Language Dysfunction Scale (TALD)

“…Dėl savo plataus požymių spektro skalė tinkama ir pritaikoma bet kokio pobūdžio sutrikimui, taip pat leidžia ne tik tirti išoriškai matomus sutrikimo požymius, bet ir gilintis į subjektyvią asmens išgyvenamą patirtį. Skalė naudojama įvairiose populiacijose (Mutlu et al, 2019;Chang et al, 2019), ja sėkmingai tiriami su mąstymo sutrikimo etiologija susiję veiksniai (Maderthaner, 2023;Nagels et al, 2016).…”

“…Objektyvių pozityvių požymių srityje didžiausius balus yra gavusi šizofrenijos grupė, kiek mažiau, tačiau nedaug atsilieka ir šizoafektinio sutrikimo grupė. Kai kuriose mąstymo sutrikimą tiriančiose studijose šizofrenijos ir šizoafektinio sutrikimo grupės dėl šios priežasties ir dėl vienodų psichopatologinių ypatumų yra priskiriamos tai pačiai imčiai (Clark, Warman, & Lysaker, 2010;Maderthaner et al, 2023). Depresija sergantieji subjektyvių negatyvių ir subjektyvių pozityvių požymių išreiškia daugiausia.…”

Associations of Resting-State Perfusion and Auditory Verbal Hallucinations with and Without Emotional Content in Schizophrenia

“…Slices of the functional images were acquired in ascending order. We processed all images with SPM12 for MATLAB (Wellcome Trust Centre for NeuroImaging, University College London; http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/spm) and with an in-house custom-written MATLAB program toolbox, designed for ASL-image-analyses (Cantisani, König, et al, 2016;Cantisani, Stegmayer, et al, 2016;Cantisani et al, 2018;Federspiel et al, 2006;Jann et al, 2013;Kindler et al, 2015;Kübel et al, 2018;Maderthaner et al, 2023;Stegmayer et al, 2017;Walther et al, 2011;Walther et al, 2017). We first segmented the T1-3D scans into grey matter (GM), white matter (WM) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).…”