Objective:Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) constitute severe, incapacitating symptoms of schizophrenia. Despite increasing interest in the functional exploration of AVHs, the available findings remain difficult to integrate because of their considerable variability. The authors' aim was to perform a robust quantitative review of existing functional data in order to elucidate consistent patterns observed during the emergence of AVHs and to orient new pathophysiological models of hallucinations. Method:Ten positron emission tomography or functional magnetic resonance imaging studies were selected for the meta-analysis after systematic review. A total of 68 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders experiencing AVHs during scanning were included. According to a random-effects activation likelihood estimation algorithm, stereotaxic coordinates of 129 foci, reported as significant in the source studies, were extracted and computed to estimate the brain locations most consistently associated with AVHs...

https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.1176/appi.ajp.2010.09101522

Cortical Activations During Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Schizophrenia: A Coordinate-Based Meta-Analysis

Urbanization has many benefits, but it also is associated with increased levels of mental illness, including depression. It has been suggested that decreased nature experience may help to explain the link between urbanization and mental illness. This suggestion is supported by a growing body of correlational and experimental evidence, which raises a further question: what mechanism(s) link decreased nature experience to the development of mental illness? One such mechanism might be the impact of nature exposure on rumination, a maladaptive pattern of self-referential thought that is associated with heightened risk for depression and other mental illnesses. We show in healthy participants that a brief nature experience, a 90-min walk in a natural setting, decreases both self-reported rumination and neural activity in the subgenual prefrontal cortex (sgPFC), whereas a 90-min walk in an urban setting has no such effects on self-reported rumination or neural activity. In other studies, the sgPFC has been associated with a self-focused behavioral withdrawal linked to rumination in both depressed and healthy individuals. This study reveals a pathway by which nature experience may improve mental well-being and suggests that accessible natural areas within urban contexts may be a critical resource for mental health in our rapidly urbanizing world.

/pdf/nature-experience-reduces-rumination-and-subgenual-4c07zw7cbi.pdf

Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation

Prediction as a Humanitarian and Pragmatic Contribution from Human Cognitive Neuroscience

Chronic excessive alcohol consumption induces cognitive impairments mainly affecting executive functions, episodic memory, and visuospatial capacities related to multiple brain lesions. These cognitive impairments not only determine everyday management of these patients, but also impact on the efficacy of management and may compromise the abstinence prognosis. Maintenance of lasting abstinence is associated with cognitive recovery in these patients, but some impairments may persist and interfere with the good conduct and the efficacy of management. It therefore appears essential to clearly define neuropsychological management designed to identify and evaluate the type and severity of alcohol-related cognitive impairments. It is also essential to develop cognitive remediation therapy so that the patient can fully benefit from the management proposed in addiction medicine units.

/pdf/cognitive-impairments-in-alcohol-dependent-subjects-3sjptp0glo.pdf

Cognitive impairments in alcohol-dependent subjects.

How can the brain's resting state activity generate hallucinations? A ‘resting state hypothesis’ of auditory verbal hallucinations

Previous small-sample studies have shown altered frontotemporal activity in schizophrenia patients with auditory hallucinations and impaired monitoring of self-generated speech. We examined a large cohort of patients with schizophrenia (n = 63) and a representative group of healthy controls (n = 20) to disentangle performance, illness, and symptom-related effects in functional magnetic resonance imaging-detected brain abnormalities during monitoring of self- and externally generated speech in schizophrenia. Our results revealed activation of the thalamus (medial geniculate nucleus, MGN) and frontotemporal regions with accurate monitoring across all participants. Less activation of the thalamus (MGN, pulvinar) and superior-middle temporal and inferior frontal gyri occurred in poorly performing patients (1 standard deviation below controls' mean; n = 36), relative to the combined group of controls and well-performing patients. In patients, (1) greater deactivation of the ventral striatum and hypothalamus to own voice, combined with nonsignificant activation of the same regions to others' voice, associated positively with negative symptoms (blunted affect, emotional withdrawal, poor rapport, passive social avoidance) regardless of performance and (2) exaggerated activation of the right superior-middle temporal gyrus during undistorted, relative to distorted, feedback associated with both positive symptoms (hallucinations, persecution) and poor performance. A further thalamic abnormality characterized schizophrenia patients regardless of performance and symptoms. We conclude that hypoactivation of a neural network comprised of the thalamus and frontotemporal regions underlies impaired speech monitoring in schizophrenia. Positive symptoms and poor monitoring share a common activation abnormality in the right superior temporal gyrus during processing of degraded speech. Altered striatal and hypothalamic modulation to own and others' voice characterizes emotionally withdrawn and socially avoidant patients.

/pdf/functional-mri-of-verbal-self-monitoring-in-schizophrenia-4g540r2gpu.pdf

Ananatha P.P. Anilkumar

Papers

Functional MRI of Verbal Self-monitoring in Schizophrenia: Performance and Illness-Specific Effects

Structural magnetic resonance imaging predictors of responsiveness to cognitive behaviour therapy in psychosis