Poster No:
646
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Marina Pavlova1, Valentina Romagnano2, Julian Kubon2, Andreas Fallgatter3, Christoph Braun2, Alexander Sokolov4
Institutions:
1Eberhard karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Baden-Würtemberg, 2University of Tubingen Medical School, Tubingen, Baden-Wurtemberg, 3UNiversity of Tubingen Medical School, Tubingen, Baden-Wurtemberg, 4University of Tübingen Medical School, Tübingen, Baden-Wurttemberg
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Julian Kubon, MD
University of Tubingen Medical School
Tubingen, Baden-Wurtemberg
Christoph Braun
University of Tubingen Medical School
Tubingen, Baden-Wurtemberg
Introduction:
Faces are essential for effective non-verbal communication and adaptive 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 non-face face-pareidolia images that easily elicit face impression in typically developing population. However, the origin of this deficit at the brain level are largely under-investigated.
Methods:
A task with Arcimboldo-like Face-n-Food images was administered to twenty-seven males with schizophrenia and person-by-person matched typically developing individuals to uncover possible alterations in gamma oscillatory neuromagnetic activity in schizophrenia. Images were presented either with canonical upright orientation or with display inversion that heavily impedes face pareidolia. MEG recording, data preprocessing and analysis were similar to our previous studies (Kubon et., 2023; Romagnano et al., 2024). A cutting-edge analysis of MEG brain connectivity unfolding over time is described in details in Romagnano et al. (2024). In brief, the connectivity analysis was performed, for low and high gamma. This analysis assumes that increased coherence is indicative of communication between seeds. The lateral occipital cortex (LOC-R, LOC-L), along with four other regions engaged in processing of face-pareidolia images (Romagnano et al., 2024) were selected as seed regions in both hemispheres: the insula (INS-R; INS-L), the superior temporal sulcus (STS-R; STS-L), the inferior parietal lobe (IPL-R; IPL-L), and the inferior temporal gyrus (ITG-R; ITG-L). To assess directionality (leading or lagging) of the connections and their potential changes over time, the phase slope index (PSI) for the connections of the ten seeds with the other seeds was calculated in each participant. The analysis was performed from stimulus onset over the entire stimulus duration in windows of 0.4 s with a 0.1 s overlap (given a total stimulus duration of 1.2 s, overlap of the last time window was 0.2 s)
Results:
Already at early processing stages, the bursts in gamma oscillatory activity differ between SZ and TD individuals in terms of frequency and topography. In TD, the burst accompanying face-pareidolia responses was found in the right LOC, whereas for non-face responses the peak showed the maximum in the MVOC. For SZ patients, both for face-pareidolia and non-face impressions, the peaks originated from the MVOC. Brain connectivity analysis unfolding over time in the gamma frequency of 40-45 Hz and 65-70 Hz reveals alterations in feedforward and feedback dynamic communication between the right LOC and the key areas of the social brain in SZ patients. At early processing stages, brain communication differed between SZ and TD individuals. In both groups, brain communication involved primarily the LOC and ITG bilaterally. In SZ this communication was unidirectional: the LOC in both hemispheres transmitted information to the ITG of the opposite hemisphere. In TD individuals, the right LOC transmited information to the left ITG, while the LOC receives information from the right ITG.
Conclusions:
In SZ, already at early processing stages of face-pareidolia images, gamma oscillatory activity exhibits alterations in terms of topography. In TD, the bursts of gamma activity originate from the right LOC engaged in processing of shape and human face information, whereas in SZ patients, the maximum of activity occurs in the MVOC. These findings dovetail with the brain connectivity analysis: in SZ, early brain communication between the LOC and social brain demonstrate alterations in feedforward and feedback connections. Later, in TD individuals, the STS, insula and ITG strongly engage in communication with other brain regions either as signal transmitters or recipients, while in SZ patients, this communication is rather impoverished.
Disorders of the Nervous System:
Psychiatric (eg. Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia) 2
Emotion, Motivation and Social Neuroscience:
Social Cognition 1
Keywords:
MEG
Psychiatric Disorders
Schizophrenia
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Healthy subjects only or patients (note that patient studies may also involve healthy subjects):
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Was this research conducted in the United States?
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Were any human subjects research approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board or ethics panel?
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Please indicate which methods were used in your research:
MEG
Provide references using APA citation style.
Kubon, J., Romagnano, V., Sokolov, A.N., Fallgatter, A.J., Braun, C., Pavlova, M.A. (2023). Neural circuits underpinning face tuning in male depression. Cerebral Cortex, 33(7), 3827-3839.
Romagnano, V., Kubon, J., Sokolov, A.N., Fallgatter, A.J., Braun, C., Pavlova, M.A. (2024). Dynamic brain communication underwriting face pareidolia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, e2401196121.
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