Avolition-Apathy and White Matter Connectivity in Schizophrenia: Reduced Fractional Anisotropy Between Amygdala and Insular Cortex.

Avolition-Apathy and White Matter Connectivity in Schizophrenia: Reduced Fractional Anisotropy Between Amygdala and Insular Cortex. Clin EEG Neurosci. 2018 Jan;49(1):55-65 Authors: Amodio A, Quarantelli M, Mucci A, Prinster A, Soricelli A, Vignapiano A, Giordano GM, Merlotti E, Nicita A, Galderisi S Abstract The avolition/apathy domain of negative symptoms includes motivation- and pleasure-related impairments. In people with schizophrenia, structural and functional abnormalities were reported in key regions within the motivational reward system, including ventral-tegmental area (VTA), striatum (especially at the level of the nucleus accumbens, NAcc), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), as well as amygdala (Amy) and insular cortex (IC). However, the association of the reported abnormalities with avoliton-apathy is still controversial. In the present study, we investigated white matter connectivity patterns within these regions, using a probabilistic analysis of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data, in male subjects with schizophrenia. Thirty-five male subjects with schizophrenia (SCZ) and 17 male healthy controls (HC) matched for age, underwent DTI. SCZ were evaluated using the Schedule for Deficit Syndrome (SDS), the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB). Probabilistic tractography was applied to investigate pathways connecting the Amy and the NAcc with the OFC and IC. Reduced fractio...
Source: Clinical EEG and Neuroscience - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Clin EEG Neurosci Source Type: research