Decreased blood flow in the right insula and middle temporal gyrus predicts negative formal thought disorder in schizophrenia

Formal thought disorder (FTD) causes severe disturbances of language and communication, and affects 50% –80% of people with schizophrenia (Roche et al., 2015). It is part of the disorganization syndrome that has been found to distinguish patients with schizophrenia from patients with psychotic bipolar disorder, and may, thus, inform differential diagnosis (Palaniyappan et al., 2018). The breakdown o f effective communication in FTD is associated with structural and functional alterations of the fronto-temporal language network (Cavelti et al., 2018; Horn et al., 2009; Kircher et al., 2008; Palaniyappan et al., 2015; Strik et al., 2017; Sumner et al., 2017) but might extend to areas outside this network including the amygdala (Cavelti et al., 2018; Spalletta et al., 2010; Sumner et al., 2017), hippocampus (Cavelti et al., 2018; Kircher et al., 2008; Spalletta et al., 2010; Sumner et al., 2017), and insula (Cavelti et al., 2018; Horn et al., 2009; Palaniyappan et al., 2015; Sumner et al., 2 017).
Source: Schizophrenia Research - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Letter to the Editor Source Type: research