Cognitive modes underlying attentional control deficits in schizophrenia: A functional magnetic resonance imaging...

The current functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study examined the anatomical and functional patterns associated with attentional control deficits in schizophrenia. Participants completed a trivalent task switching paradigm in which they alternatively completed three tasks (i.e., identify colour, parity, or letter case), while viewing stimuli with one (univalent), two (bivalent), or three (trivalent) dimension(s). This required participants to counteract their attentional capture by biasing their attention away from up to two task-irrelevant dimensions. Three cognitive modes emerged via constrained principal component analysis (CPCA): (1) Multiple Demand (MD), (2) Language (LAN), and (3) Default Mode B (DM-B). Relative to neurotypical participants, patients with schizophrenia showed impaired task performance, muted but sustained activation of the MD mode, hypoactivation of the LAN mode, and hyperdeactivation of the DM-B mode. Moreover, the muted and sustained activation of the MD mode was associated with higher scores on hallucinations and delusions, while the hypoactivation of the LAN mode and the hyperdeactivation of the DM-B mode were associated with higher scores on poverty of speech and flattened affect. Thus, attentional biasing impairments in schizophrenia may reflect reduced engagement of task-positive MD and LAN modes and excessive suppression of task-negative DM-B mode, with mode-specific associations to symptom severity.