Pre-reflective and reflective abnormalities in cortical midline structures in schizophrenia

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Psychiatry

Background:

• Self-disorders (SDs) are core features of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD), impacting pre-reflective and reflective aspects of self-consciousness.
• Understanding the neural underpinnings of SDs is crucial for developing targeted interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the neural correlates of pre-reflective and reflective self-experience in individuals with SSD.
• To differentiate brain activity patterns associated with SDs during a cognitive task using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Main Methods:

• 27 individuals with SSD and 32 healthy controls (HC) underwent 7 Tesla fMRI scanning.
• A trait-judgment paradigm assessed self-referential and other-referential processing.
• The Examination of Anomalous Self-Experience (EASE) scale measured SD severity.

Main Results:

• Negative correlation between rostral posterior cingulate cortex activity and SD severity at the pre-reflective level.
• Healthy controls showed frontopolar cortex and anterior cingulate cortex activation for reflective self-experience.
• Patients with SSD exhibited distinct activations in the caudate nucleus, frontopolar cortex, and language areas during reflective self-experience.

Conclusions:

• Abnormalities in the rostral posterior cingulate cortex are associated with pre-reflective self-disorders in SSD.
• Reflective self-experience in SSD involves engagement of analytical and deeper brain networks compared to the interoceptive processes observed in HC.