Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Aug 7:12:102.
doi: 10.1186/1471-244X-12-102.

Exploring psychotic symptoms: a comparison of motor related neuronal activation during and after acute psychosis

Luke Sheridan Rains  1 , Gregory Fallica, Owen O'Daly, James Gilleen, Vincent Giampetro, Lucy Morley, Sukhi Shergill
Affiliations

Exploring psychotic symptoms: a comparison of motor related neuronal activation during and after acute psychosis

Luke Sheridan Rains et al. BMC Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: Delusions and hallucinations are classic positive symptoms of schizophrenia. A contemporary cognitive theory called the 'forward output model' suggests that the misattribution of self-generated actions may underlie some of these types of symptoms, such as delusions of control - the experience of self-generated action being controlled by an external agency. In order to examine the validity of this suggestion, we performed a longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study examining neuronal activation associated with motor movement during acute psychosis.

Methods: We studied brain activation using fMRI during a motor task in 11 patients with schizophrenia and 9 healthy controls. The patient group was tested at two time points separated by 6-8 weeks.

Results: At initial testing, the patient group had a mean Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale score of 56.3, and showed significantly increased activation within the left inferior parietal lobe (IPL) compared to controls. Patients reported significantly decreased positive symptoms at 6-8 week followup and IPL activation had returned to normal. Our results demonstrate that first-rank positive symptoms are associated with hyperactivation in the secondary somatosensory cortex (IPL).

Conclusions: These findings lend further credence to the theory that a dysfunction in the sensory feedback system located in the IPL, and which is thought to underlie our sense of agency, may contribute to the aetiology of delusions of control.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Ascending transverse sections through the brain from left to right, relative to the intercommissural plane (mm). The right side of the brain is shown in the left side of each image. The red clusters illustrate increased brain activation (in red) during the spontaneous task for row a) patients at T1 compared to controls and row b) patients at T1 compared to T2 In each of the images. In each case, the activation is located in BA40.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Frith C. The self in action: Lessons from delusions of control. Conscious Cogn. 2005;14:752–770. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2005.04.002. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Frith C, Friston K, Liddle P, Frackowiak R. PET imaging and cognition in schizophrenia. J R Soc Med. 1992;85(4):222–224. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Franck N, Daniel M, O'Leary S, Flaum M, Hichwa R, Andreasen N. Cerebral Blood Flow Changes Associated With Schneiderian First-Rank Symptoms in Schizophrenia. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2002;14(3):277–282. doi: 10.1176/appi.neuropsych.14.3.277. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Blakemore S, Wolpert D, Frith C. Why can't you tickle yourself? Neuroreport. 2000;11(11):11–16. - PubMed
    1. Milne R, Aniss A, Kay N, Gandevia S. Reduction in perceived intensity of cutaneous stimuli during movement: a quantitative study. Exp Brain Res. 1988;70:569–576. - PubMed

MeSH terms