Abstract
Impaired self-monitoring and abnormalities of cognitive bias have been implicated as cognitive mechanisms of hallucination; regions fundamental to these processes including inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and superior temporal gyrus (STG) are abnormally activated in individuals that hallucinate. A recent study showed activation in IFG-STG to be modulated by auditory attractiveness, but no study has investigated whether these IFG-STG activations are impaired in schizophrenia. We aimed to clarify the cerebral function underlying the perception of auditory attractiveness in schizophrenia patients. Cerebral activation was examined in 18 schizophrenia patients and 18 controls when performing Favorability Judgment Task (FJT) and Gender Differentiation Task (GDT) for pairs of greetings using event-related functional MRI. A full-factorial analysis revealed that the main effect of task was associated with activation of left IFG and STG. The main effect of Group revealed less activation of left STG in schizophrenia compared with controls, whereas significantly greater activation in schizophrenia than in controls was revealed at the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG), right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), right occipital lobe, and right amygdala (p < 0.05, FDR-corrected). A significant positive correlation was observed at the right TPJ and right MFG between cerebral activation under FJT minus GDT contrast and the score of hallucinatory behavior on the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale. Findings of hypo-activation in the left STG could designate brain dysfunction in accessing vocal attractiveness in schizophrenia, whereas hyper-activation in the right TPJ and MFG may reflect the process of mentalizing other person's behavior by auditory hallucination by abnormality of cognitive bias.
Highlights
Auditory hallucinations and thought disorder are the main symptoms of schizophrenia, and these symptoms profoundly affect the neural basis of social communications as well as behavior (Brune et al, 2008; Bucci et al, 2008; Wible et al, 2009; Kumari et al, 2010; Granholm et al, 2012; Waters et al, 2012)
If schizophrenia patients have auditory hallucination, misjudgment of favorable/unfavorable greeting may be induced by abnormality of cognitive bias
This study suggests that the roles of superior temporal gyrus (STG) and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) are essential for perceiving auditory attractiveness (Bestelmeyer et al, 2012)
Summary
Auditory hallucinations and thought disorder are the main symptoms of schizophrenia, and these symptoms profoundly affect the neural basis of social communications as well as behavior (Brune et al, 2008; Bucci et al, 2008; Wible et al, 2009; Kumari et al, 2010; Granholm et al, 2012; Waters et al, 2012). One of the main cognitive models in schizophrenia proposes that hallucinations arise from impaired self-monitoring and abnormality of cognitive bias (Allen et al, 2004). A recent study has suggested that auditory hallucination in schizophrenia may be caused by both impaired brain function in auditory processing and disturbance of attention bias toward internally generated information (Kompus et al, 2011). If schizophrenia patients have auditory hallucination, misjudgment of favorable/unfavorable greeting may be induced by abnormality of cognitive bias. It is unclear whether schizophrenia patients with auditory hallucinations have impaired abilities to differentiate between favorable and unfavorable greetings
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