Nonlinear Response of the Anterior Cingulate and Prefrontal Cortex in Schizophrenia as a Function of Variable Attentional Control

Previous studies have reported abnormal prefrontal and cingulate activity during attentional control processing in schizophrenia. However, it is not clear how variation in attentional control load modulates activity within these brain regions in this brain disorder. The aim of this study in schizoph...

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Published in:Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. 1991) N.Y. 1991), 2010-04, Vol.20 (4), p.837-845
Main Authors: Blasi, Giuseppe, Taurisano, Paolo, Papazacharias, Apostolos, Caforio, Grazia, Romano, Raffaella, Lobianco, Luciana, Fazio, Leonardo, Di Giorgio, Annabella, Latorre, Valeria, Sambataro, Fabio, Popolizio, Teresa, Nardini, Marcello, Mattay, Venkata S., Weinberger, Daniel R., Bertolino, Alessandro
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Analysis of Variance
attention
Attention - physiology
Brain Mapping
cognitive load
Female
fMRI
Gyrus Cinguli - blood supply
Gyrus Cinguli - physiopathology
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Male
Neural Pathways - blood supply
Neural Pathways - physiopathology
Neuropsychological Tests
Oxygen - blood
parametric design
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Photic Stimulation - methods
Prefrontal Cortex - blood supply
Prefrontal Cortex - physiopathology
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Schizophrenia - pathology
Schizophrenic Psychology
Statistics as Topic
Young Adult
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Summary:Previous studies have reported abnormal prefrontal and cingulate activity during attentional control processing in schizophrenia. However, it is not clear how variation in attentional control load modulates activity within these brain regions in this brain disorder. The aim of this study in schizophrenia is to investigate the impact of increasing levels of attentional control processing on prefrontal and cingulate activity. Blood oxygen level–dependent (BOLD) responses of 16 outpatients with schizophrenia were compared with those of 21 healthy subjects while performing a task eliciting increasing levels of attentional control during event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging at 3 T. Results showed reduced behavioral performance in patients at greater attentional control levels. Imaging data indicated greater prefrontal activity at intermediate attentional control levels in patients but greater prefrontal and cingulate responses at high attentional control demands in controls. The BOLD activity profile of these regions in controls increased linearly with increasing cognitive loads, whereas in patients, it was nonlinear. Correlation analysis consistently showed differential region and load-specific relationships between brain activity and behavior in the 2 groups. These results indicate that varying attentional control load is associated in schizophrenia with load- and region-specific modification of the relationship between behavior and brain activity, possibly suggesting earlier saturation of cognitive capacity.
ISSN:1047-3211
1460-2199
DOI:10.1093/cercor/bhp146