Dynamic brain communication underlying face pareidolia in male schizophrenia

Faces are essential for effective communication and social interaction. Substantial alterations in face processing are observed in a wide range of mental disorders, in particular, in schizophrenia (SZ). Individuals with SZ experience difficulties to seeing faces in face-pareidolia images that easily elicit face impression in their typically developing (TD) peers. Here, males with SZ and TD controls performed a task with Arcimboldo-like Face-n-Food face-pareidolia images during MEG recording. The outcome reveals that already at early processing stages, the bursts of gamma oscillations differ between SZ and TD individuals in terms of frequency and topography. When contrasting gamma activity for face responses between TD individuals and SZ, the maximum activation for the frequency range of 40-45 Hz originates from the right LOC. In accord with this, in SZ, an advanced analysis of brain connectivity unfolding over time in the low (40-45 Hz) and high (65-70 Hz) gamma ranges reveals alterations in communication between the right LOC and the social brain. In SZ, early engagement of the right LOC is limited to transmitting signals to higher-order regions, whereas in TD, it also serves as a recipient of sophisticated feedback communication from the higher-order areas of the social brain. This study offers novel insights into altered brain communication and the origins of social cognition deficits in SZ that is characterized by a skewed sex ratio with substantial gender differences in disease manifestation.