‘Loosening of associations’ found in schizophrenia
December 2022
Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan
Schizophrenia is a mental illness that presents with thought disorders including delusions and disorganized speech. Thought disorders have been regarded as a consequence of the loosening of associations between semantic concepts. To evaluate how aberrant semantic connections are expressed through brain activity, the researchers characterized large-scale network structures of concept representations using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). They quantified various concept representations in patients’ brains from fMRI activity evoked by movie scenes using encoding modelling and subsequently constructing semantic brain networks. The results provide pathophysiological evidence for the loosening of associations in schizophrenia. This method represents a promising approach for understanding the neural basis of altered or creative inner experiences of individuals with mental illness or exceptional abilities, respectively.
Disorganization of semantic brain networks in schizophrenia revealed by fMRI
Hidehiko Takahashi
Added on: 01-19-2023
[1] https://academic.oup.com/schizophreniabulletin/advance-article/doi/10.1093/schbul/sbac157/6865143[2] https://neurosciencenews.com/sementic-network-schizophrenia-22272/
