A neural mechanism underlying predictive visual motion processing in patients with schizophrenia

Abstract

AbstractPsychotic symptoms may be traced back to sensory sensitivity. Thereby, visual motion (VM) processing particularly has been suggested to be impaired in schizophrenia (SCZ). In healthy brains, VM underlies predictive processing within hierarchically structured systems. However, less is known about predictive VM processing in SCZ. Therefore, we performed fMRI during a VM paradigm with three conditions of varying predictability, i.e., predictable-, random-, and arbitrary motion. The study sample comprised 17 SCZ patients and 23 healthy controls. We calculated general linear model (GLM) analysis to assess group differences in VM processing across motion conditions. Here, we identified significantly lower activity in right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) for SCZ patients. Therefore, right TPJ was set as seed for connectivity analyses. For patients, across conditions we identified increased connections to higher regions, namely medial prefrontal cortex, or paracingulate gyrus. Healthy subjects activated sensory regions as area V5, or superior parietal lobule. Since TPJ operates as hub modulating network shifts, aberrant functional connectivity with higher structures may thus reflect a compensatory mechanism co-occurring to impaired TPJ activity in SCZ. In sum, these altered neural patterns provide a framework for future studies focusing on predictive VM processing to identify potential biomarkers of psychosis.