Resting-State Brain Activity in Schizophrenia and Major Depression: A Quantitative Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Intrinsic activity of the brain during resting-state is not random and is currently discussed as a neural reflection of self-referential processing. Self-reference is typically reduced in schizophrenia as a disorder of the self while extensive self-attribution of, eg, negative thoughts is characteristic for major depression. However, a quantitative meta-analysis targeting the resting-state brain activity in both disorders is lacking. Here, we predict primarily abnormal resting-state activity in brain regions related to self-referential processing. By means of activation likelihood estimation (ALE) on functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography studies, we investigated concurrence of hyperactivation and hypoactivation in resting-state measurements of schizophrenic and depressed patients compared with healthy controls. We found hypoactivation in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), left hippocampus, posterior cingulate cortex, lower precueus and the precuneus, and hyperactivation in bilateral lingual gyrus of schizophrenic patients. In major depression, we found hyperactivation in vmPFC, left ventral striatum, and left thalamus and hypoactivation in left postcentral gyrus, left fusiform gyrus, and left insula. An overall ALE analysis confirmed the proximity of hypoactivation in schizophrenia and hyperactivation in major depression in the vmPFC.The opposing resting-state activity in vmPFC for the 2 disorders is in line with the different expression of dysfunctional self-reference as core characteristics of schizophrenia and major depression. The vmPFC has previously been identified as a crucial area for self-referential processing and may represent a target to increase the diagnostic validity of resting-state activity for disorders with dysfunctions of the self.

Baseline brain perfusion and brain structure in patients with major depression: a multimodal magnetic resonance imaging study

“…Recently, in patients with MDD reciprocal associations between neural activity and rumination have been reported for hippocampal, inferior and superior frontal and anterior cingulate regions. [74][75][76][77] Contrasting our findings with the extant literature, it is noteworthy that we observed very limited overlap between regions exhibiting abnormal rCBF in patients and brain regions that were found to be associated with rumination in patients with MDD. Yet given that we didn't explicitly assess these symptoms, definitive conclusions cannot be drawn from the present findings.…”

Resting brain activity in disorders of consciousness

“…Thirteen studies were ultimately selected for meta-analysis, which is similar to the number of studies in other published coordinate-based metaanalyses. 14,59 Another limitation is the inherent differences between ALFF and ICA in analyzing BOLD response. To address this, we performed 2 different analyses, with and without the ALFF studies, an approach that did not significantly change the results.…”

“…We included data acquired with different neuroimaging techniques (e.g., fMRI, PET) as has been done successfully in other meta-analyses. 13,14 Coordinates in Talairach space were transformed to MNI space using Lancaster transformation available on BrainMap. 15 We used false discovery rate of 0.05 and minimum cluster volume of 200 mm 3 .…”

Neurobiological Correlates of Core Symptoms in Anorexia:Abnormal Spatiotemporal Structure in the Resting-StateActivity and Troubles of the Self

“…in both the schizophrenia and the anorexia nervosa these regions evidence a reduced activity (Amianto et al, 2013a; Joos et al, 2010), while directly comparing the resting-state activity between schizophrenia and major depressive disorder (MDD) the PACC and VMPFC showed reduced resting-state activity in schizophrenia and increased in MDD (Kuhn & Gallinat, 2013) [10].…”

“…A recent meta-analysis of resting-state studies in schizophrenia has observed an hypoactivity in various anterior and posterior midline regions of the DMN which are supposed to be strictly related to the integration of the inputs related to the Self including the PACC, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), the precuneus, the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and the hippocampus (Kuhn & Gallinat, 2013) [10]. Also in the subjects affected with anorexia nervosa the anterior and posterior midline regions are also altered, both morphologically and functionally (Amianto et al, 2013a; Joos et al, 2010) [11,12].…”