Functional dysconnectivity in schizophrenia and its relationship to neural synchrony

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a debilitating disorder of unknown cause. There is increasing momentum to consider functional dysconnectivity as an endophenotype of schizophrenia, and in particular, how it relates to cognition as a core feature of the disorder. Here, the authors review the conceptual models of functional dysconnectivity in schizophrenia to date, the evidence they are based on and some of the limitations of these models. The authors then propose ‘neural synchrony’ as a potential mechanism for functional dysconnectivity and review the current state of evidence for a link between neural synchrony and cognition in schizophrenia across behavioral, physiological, brain imaging, neurochemical and neurogenetic units of enquiry. The authors conclude by outlining the unmet needs in this field and give an outlook on how to fill these gaps.