Anti-correlated Brain Networks and Self-agency Experience in First-episode Schizophrenia-spectrum Patients. an FMRI Study.

The ability to judge whether an action is one's own or another's depends on dynamic switching between two large-scale brain networks: the default mode network (DMN) and the central-executive network (CEN), which normally work in opposition. In people with first-episode schizophrenia spectrum disorders, this antagonistic switching mechanism is substantially impaired, and the degree of impairment correlates with poorer performance on self-agency judgment tasks. The findings suggest that a core pathology in schizophrenia may lie in the higher-order regulatory mechanisms that coordinate these networks.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In this study we sought to explore patterns of neural activity related to the self/other-agency judgment in patients with first-episode schizophrenia spectrum disorders (FES) and healthy controls (HC). Thirty-five FES patients and 35 age-, gender- and education-matched healthy controls. A task-related functional connectivity analysis with the use of independent component analysis (ICA). ICA revealed that the self/other-agency judgment was dependent upon anti-correlated default mode and central-executive networks (DMN/CEN) dynamic switching. This antagonistic mechanism was substantially impaired in FES during the task. Time-courses of DMN/CEN activity has been analyzed by means of signal power and spectral coherence. There was statistically significant difference in the variable (anti-correlation index, AI) between FES and HC. AI correlated with self-agency judgment task performance in FES. This finding suggests that the main site of pathology in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders may originate in higher-order regulatory mechanisms subserving DMN/CEN orchestration. The study was supported by the IGA Ministry of Health, Czech Republic, grant NT/14291.