RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Functional Connectivity Patterns Underlying the Experience of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Patients with Schizophrenia
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 062992
DO 10.1101/062992
A1 Parekh Pravesh
A1 John P. John
A1 Sangeetha Menon
A1 Harsha N. Halahalli
A1 Bindu M. Kutty
YR 2016
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/07/10/062992.abstract
AB Schizophrenia is characterized by functional connectivity aberrations between brain regions that mediate different cognitive processes. The characteristic symptoms of schizophrenia such as delusions, hallucinations, passivity experiences etc. are suggested to reflect a disordered self-awareness. In the present study, we used a novel fMRI paradigm, the ‘Hallucination Attentional Modulation Task (HAMT)”, to examine the functional connectivity patterns underlying the experience of auditory verbal hallucinations in contrast to the patterns associated with processing of visual stimuli. We found that there was substantial overlap amongst healthy (n=8) and schizophrenia (n=6) subjects with respect to the functional connectivity patterns during the ‘free attention’ and ‘visual attention’ conditions of the paradigm. In patients with schizophrenia having continuous auditory verbal hallucinations, the connectivity between the bilateral superior parietal lobules and bilateral thalami were stronger during the ‘hallucination attention’ condition. These results provide preliminary leads that link auditory verbal hallucinations to an underlying disorder of self-agency.