Neural correlates of reality monitoring during adolescence

Abstract

Much like adults performing a similar reality monitoring task, adolescents exhibit a common pattern of brain activity during origin and context monitoring, with functional specialization within the prefrontal cortex involving preferential activation of BA 10 during origin monitoring. Greater schizotypal trait expression appears to be significantly associated to reduced BA 10 activity during origin monitoring trials. Results are discussed in relation to cortical specialization within the PFC and trait expression during adolescence.

Predicting term-relevance from brain signals

“…In an extended analysis we find significant activity in brain areas that have previously been found responsible for recognition and memory recall, and for organizing, maintaining, and implementing intentions [18]. This supports TRPB from a cognitive science perspective.…”

“…Cognitive scientists have long been interested in mapping basic cognitive functions that are highly related to perceiving relevance (e.g., recognition and memory recall [32,42]) and reacting to relevant stimuli (e.g. implementing intentions [18]). The wealth of knowledge from various fields underlines the fundamental complexity of relevance, which may be the reason why the question of "how does relevance happen in the brain" remains unanswered [25].…”

Brain Mechanisms of Reality Monitoring

“…Consistent with this prediction, the anterior PFC region linked to reality monitoring in healthy volunteers overlaps closely [30] with one of the areas that consistently exhibit reduced activity in patients with schizophrenia compared with controls during performance of a range of cognitive tasks [67][68][69][70][71]. Moreover, lower anterior PFC activity in healthy individuals during reality monitoring correlates with proneness to psychosis and schizotypal trait expression [37], an effect that is also observed in adolescents at risk of developing schizophrenia [72], suggesting its potential as a possible marker in young people of those with heightened likelihood of converting from prodromal to full psychosis [73].…”

Schizotypy From a Developmental Perspective

“…35 At the cerebral level, social cognitive specialization may indeed rely on more distal and complex internetwork collaboration, typically refined during adolescent brain maturation and specialization. 36 To date, 2 functional neuroimaging studies suggest that schizotypal expression during adolescence is significantly associated with atypical brain activation patterns in social cognitive tasks requiring efficient self-other discrimination (realitymonitoring and self-appraisal tasks 37,38 ). Interestingly, adolescents with different risk etiologies (genetic vs clinical risk) may share neural markers associated with atypical social cognitive functions.…”

“…Finally, social cognitive impairments associated with schizophrenia also relate to schizotypal expression during adolescence. [37][38][39] When this triad of observations is considered conjointly with the predictive value of schizotypy for the development of schizophrenia spectrum disorders, it positions this risk trait as a potent transactional agent, a developmental vehicle linking early endophenotypes to growing propensity of developing psychopathology. In other words, schizotypy might constitute a measurable intermediate mediator in the developmental cascade of schizophrenic disorders.…”