Emotional words induce enhanced brain activity in schizophrenic patients with auditory hallucinations

Sanjuan, Julio; Lull, Juan J.; Aguilar, Eduardo J.; Martí-Bonmatí, Luis; Moratal, David; Gonzalez, José C.; Robles, Montserrat; Keshavan, Matcheri S.

doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2006.04.011

« Previous Next »Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging
Volume 154, Issue 1 , Pages 21-29, 15 January 2007

Emotional words induce enhanced brain activity in schizophrenic patients with auditory hallucinations

Julio Sanjuan
- Psychiatric Unit, University of Valencia School of Medicine, Valencia, Spain
- Corresponding author. Unidad de Psiquiatría, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain. Tel.: +34 963983379; fax: +34 963864767.
Juan J. Lull
- Bioengineering Group, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Eduardo J. Aguilar
- Psychiatric Service, Clinic Hospital, Valencia, Spain
Luis Martí-Bonmatí
- Department of Radiology, Dr. Peset University Hospital, Valencia, Spain
David Moratal
- Bioengineering Group, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
José C. Gonzalez
- Psychiatric Service, Clinic Hospital, Valencia, Spain
Montserrat Robles
- Bioengineering Group, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Matcheri S. Keshavan
- University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Received 24 March 2005; received in revised form 25 October 2005; accepted 21 April 2006.

Abstract

Neuroimaging studies of emotional response in schizophrenia have mainly used visual (faces) paradigms and shown globally reduced brain activity. None of these studies have used an auditory paradigm. Our principal aim is to evaluate the emotional response of patients with schizophrenia to neutral and emotional words. An auditory emotional paradigm based on the most frequent words heard by psychotic patients with auditory hallucinations was designed. This paradigm was applied to evaluate cerebral activation with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 11 patients with schizophrenia with persistent hallucinations and 10 healthy subjects. We found a clear enhanced activity of the frontal lobe, temporal cortex, insula, cingulate, and amygdala (mainly right side) in patients when hearing emotional words in comparison with controls. Our findings are consistent with other studies suggesting a relevant role for emotional response in the pathogenesis and treatment of auditory hallucinations.

Keywords: Schizophrenia, Functional MRI, Salience, Emotional paradigm, Auditory hallucinations