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. 2024 Jun 13:15:1402818.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1402818. eCollection 2024.

Neural activation during natural speech and rests in patients with schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorders-an fMRI pilot trial

Wiebke Hahn  1 , Panagiota-Eleni Tsalouchidou  1 , Arne Nagels  2 , Benjamin Straube  3
Affiliations

Neural activation during natural speech and rests in patients with schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorders-an fMRI pilot trial

Wiebke Hahn et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: In schizophrenia patients, spontaneous speech production has been hypothesized as correlating with right hemispheric activation, including the inferior frontal and superior temporal gyri as speech-relevant areas. However, robust evidence for this association is still missing. The aim of the present fMRI study is to examine BOLD signal changes during natural, fluent speech production in patients with schizophrenia in the chronic phase of their disease.

Methods: Using a case-control design, the study included 15 right-handed patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders as well as 15 healthy controls. The participants described eight pictures from the Thematic Apperception Test for 1 min each, while BOLD signal changes were measured with 3T fMRI. The occurrence of positive and negative formal thought disorders was determined using standardized psychopathological assessments.

Results: We found significant BOLD signal changes during spontaneous speech production in schizophrenia patients compared to healthy controls, particularly in the right hemispheric network. A post-hoc analysis showed that this right-hemispheric lateralization was mainly driven by activation during experimental rests. Furthermore, the TLI sum value in patients correlated negatively with BOLD signal changes in the right Rolandic operculum.

Conclusions: Possible underlying factors for this inverse right-hemispheric lateralization of speech-associated areas are structural changes and transmitter system alterations, as well as a lack of neural downregulation in schizophrenia patients during rest periods due to dysfunctional executive functions. When examining spontaneous speech as the most natural form of language, other influencing factors, such as social cognition or emotional processing, should be considered. Our results indicate that future studies should consider group differences during rest, which might provide additional information typically covered in differential contrasts.

Keywords: fMRI; psychopathology; rest; schizophrenia; spontaneous speech.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Activation differences in right STG (coordinates- 58, 4, -14) within groups and between groups during spontaneous speech production and experimental rests.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Activation differences in right Rolandic Operculum (coordinates- 60, 4, 16) within groups and between groups during spontaneous speech production and experimental rests.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Repeated measure ANOVA for the area of STG and Rolandic operculum for both groups (HC, SZ) and experimental rests in the left (lat 1=blue) and right (lat 2=red) hemisphere.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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