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Correlations between sadness-induced cerebral activations and schizophrenia symptoms: An fMRI study of sex differences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

A. Mendrek ,
J.A. Jiménez ,
A. Mancini-Marïe ,
C. Fahim  and
E. Stip
A. Mendrek*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Centre de recherche Fernand-Seguin, Louis-H Lafontaine Hospital, University of Montréal, 7331 Hochelaga, Montreal (QC) H1N 3V2, Canada
J.A. Jiménez
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Centre de recherche Fernand-Seguin, Louis-H Lafontaine Hospital, University of Montréal, 7331 Hochelaga, Montreal (QC) H1N 3V2, Canada
A. Mancini-Marïe
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Centre de recherche Fernand-Seguin, Louis-H Lafontaine Hospital, University of Montréal, 7331 Hochelaga, Montreal (QC) H1N 3V2, Canada
C. Fahim
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Centre de recherche Fernand-Seguin, Louis-H Lafontaine Hospital, University of Montréal, 7331 Hochelaga, Montreal (QC) H1N 3V2, Canada
E. Stip
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Centre de recherche Fernand-Seguin, Louis-H Lafontaine Hospital, University of Montréal, 7331 Hochelaga, Montreal (QC) H1N 3V2, Canada
*
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 514 251 4015 (ext. 3528); fax: +1 514 251 2617. E-mail address: adrianna.mendrek@umontreal.ca (A. Mendrek).
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Abstract

Background

The functional neuroimaging studies of emotion processing in schizophrenia have revealed variable results attributed partly to differential symptomatology and sex of tested patients. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between cerebral activations during exposure to emotional material and schizophrenia symptoms in men versus women.

Method

Fifteen men and 10 women with schizophrenia, equivalent in terms of age, medication and experienced symptomatology, underwent functional MRI during viewing sad and neutral film excerpts. Data were analyzed using Statistical Parametric Mapping Software (SPM2).

Results

Across all the patients there was a significant inverse relationship between negative symptoms and activations in the right prefrontal cortex during processing of sad versus neutral stimuli. In men, activations during sad versus neutral stimuli in the prefrontal, temporal and anterior cingulate cortex, as well as the caudate and cerebellum, were positively correlated with negative symptoms. In women, there were inverse correlations between positive symptoms and activations in the hippocampus, parietal and occipital cortex during the same condition.

Conclusion

Present results confirmed association of prefrontal hypofunction with negative symptoms in schizophrenia. More interestingly, the results revealed a diametrically different pattern of symptom-correlated brain activity in men and women with schizophrenia, suggesting that the processing of sadness is mediated via neurophysiological mechanism related to negative symptoms in men and the mechanism related to positive symptoms in women.

Keywords

SchizophreniafMRISex differencesEmotion processingPositive and negative symptoms
Type
Original article
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 26 , Issue 5 , August 2011 , pp. 320 - 326
Copyright
Copyright © Elsevier Masson SAS 2011

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