Emotional reactivity in chronic schizophrenia: structural and functional brain correlates and the influence of adverse childhood experiences

Despite behavioural signs of flattened affect, patients affected by schizophrenia show enhanced sensitivity to negative stimuli. The current literature concerning neural circuitry for emotions supports dysregulations of cortico-limbic networks, but gives contrasting results. Adverse childhood experi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological medicine 2011-03, Vol.41 (3), p.509-519
Main Authors: Benedetti, F., Radaelli, D., Poletti, S., Falini, A., Cavallaro, R., Dallaspezia, S., Riccaboni, R., Scotti, G., Smeraldi, E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Amygdala - physiopathology
Biological and medical sciences
Brain - physiopathology
Case-Control Studies
Child development
Childhood experiences
Cortex
Emotions
Emotions - physiology
Female
Genetic engineering
Gyrus Cinguli - physiopathology
Hippocampus
Hippocampus - physiopathology
Humans
Life Change Events
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Medical sciences
Neuropsychology
Prefrontal Cortex - physiopathology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Psychoses
Reactivity
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia - etiology
Schizophrenia - physiopathology
Schizophrenic Psychology
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Summary:Despite behavioural signs of flattened affect, patients affected by schizophrenia show enhanced sensitivity to negative stimuli. The current literature concerning neural circuitry for emotions supports dysregulations of cortico-limbic networks, but gives contrasting results. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) could persistently influence emotional regulation and neural correlates of response to emotional stimuli in healthy humans. This study evaluated the effect of ACEs and chronic undifferentiated schizophrenia on neural responses to emotional stimuli (negative facial expression). Brain blood-oxygen-level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging neural responses to a face-matching paradigm, and regional grey matter (GM) volumes were studied at 3.0 T in the amygdala, hippocampus, anterior cingulated cortex (ACC) and prefrontal cortex (PFC). The severity of ACEs was assessed. Participants included 20 consecutively admitted in-patients affected by chronic undifferentiated schizophrenia, and 20 unrelated healthy volunteers from the general population. Patients reported higher ACEs than controls. Worse ACEs proportionally led to decreasing responses in the amygdala and hippocampus, and to increasing responses in the PFC and ACC in all participants. Patients showed higher activations in the amygdala and hippocampus, and lower activations in the PFC and ACC. Higher ACEs were associated with higher GM volumes in the PFC and ACC, and schizophrenia was associated with GM reduction in all studied regions. Structural and functional brain correlates of emotional reactivity are influenced by both current chronic undifferentiated schizophrenia and the severity of past ACEs.
ISSN:0033-2917
1469-8978
DOI:10.1017/S0033291710001108