Decreased activity in right-hemisphere structures involved in social cognition in siblings discordant for schizophrenia

de Achával, Delfina; Villarreal, Mirta F.; Costanzo, Elsa Y.; Douer, Jazmín; Castro, Mariana N.; Mora, Martina C.; Nemeroff, Charles B.; Chu, Elvina; Bär, Karl-Jürgen; Guinjoan, Salvador M.

doi:10.1016/j.schres.2011.11.010

« Previous Next »Schizophrenia Research
Volume 134, Issue 2 , Pages 171-179, February 2012

Decreased activity in right-hemisphere structures involved in social cognition in siblings discordant for schizophrenia

Delfina de Achával
- Sections of Cognitive Neurology and Psychiatry, Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia (FLENI), Argentina
- Department of Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Department of Neurophysiology, School of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
- CONICET, Argentina
Mirta F. Villarreal
- Sections of Cognitive Neurology and Psychiatry, Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia (FLENI), Argentina
- Department of Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Department of Neurophysiology, School of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Elsa Y. Costanzo
- Sections of Cognitive Neurology and Psychiatry, Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia (FLENI), Argentina
- Department of Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Department of Neurophysiology, School of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Jazmín Douer
- Sections of Cognitive Neurology and Psychiatry, Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia (FLENI), Argentina
Mariana N. Castro
- Sections of Cognitive Neurology and Psychiatry, Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia (FLENI), Argentina
- Department of Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Department of Neurophysiology, School of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
- CONICET, Argentina
Martina C. Mora
- Sections of Cognitive Neurology and Psychiatry, Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia (FLENI), Argentina
Charles B. Nemeroff
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, United States
Elvina Chu
- The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London, United Kingdom
Karl-Jürgen Bär
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Universitätsklinikum Jena, Jena, Germany
Salvador M. Guinjoan
- Sections of Cognitive Neurology and Psychiatry, Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia (FLENI), Argentina
- Department of Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Department of Neurophysiology, School of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
- CONICET, Argentina
- Corresponding author at: Dept. of Mental Health (FLENI), University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine, Montañeses 2325 8th floor, C1428AQK Buenos Aires, Argentina. Tel.: +54 11 5777 3200x2824; fax +54 11 5777 3209.

Received 15 July 2011; received in revised form 8 November 2011; accepted 9 November 2011. published online 05 December 2011.

Abstract

Background

Social cognitive deficits contribute to functional disability in schizophrenia. Social cognitive tasks in healthy persons consistently evoke activation of medial prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, temporoparietal gyrus, and posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus. We tested the hypothesis that patients with schizophrenia and their unaffected siblings share dysfunction of the same neural networks.

Methods

Neural activation during emotion processing (EP), theory of mind (ToM), and control tasks was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 14 patients with schizophrenia, 14 nonpsychotic siblings of patients with schizophrenia, and 14 matched healthy subjects.

Results

Compared with healthy controls, patients with schizophrenia showed reduced activation of right hemisphere structures involved in EP and ToM including inferior frontal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, and right temporoparietal junction. These deficits were shared, in part, by unaffected siblings. The latter group demonstrated deficits in bilateral precuneus activation during ToM, not present in patients.

Conclusions

Schizophrenia appears to be associated with a deficit in activation of right hemisphere components of a ToM network. Such deficits are shared in part by those at high genetic risk but unaffected by schizophrenia.

Keywords: Schizophrenia, Siblings, Social cognition, Theory of mind, fMRI, Lateralization