Key result
Schizophrenia and MDD exhibit decreased prefrontal activation versus controls, with schizophrenia showing less dorsolateral activation.
Why the study?
No studies have examined and compared prefrontal cortex activation patterns during the Tower of London task in schizophrenia and major depressive disorder.
Does prefrontal cortex activation during cognitive tasks differ between patients with schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and healthy controls?
Cross-Sectional (n=90)
No
Does prefrontal cortex activation during cognitive tasks differ between patients with schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and healthy controls?
Patients with schizophrenia and major depressive disorder exhibit distinct patterns of prefrontal cortex hypoactivation during executive function tasks, highlighting potential neurobiological differences between the disorders.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Should not yet change clinical management; hypothesis-generating for neurobiological differentiation between schizophrenia and MDD.
Background: Cognitive dysfunction is a common clinical feature of mental disorders. A number of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) studies have shown reduced prefrontal activation during the verbal fluency task (VFT) in schizophrenia (SZ) and major depressive disorder (MDD). However, no studies have examined and compared the brain activation patterns during the Tower of London (TOL), which is another classic, high-sensitivity executive function testing tool, in these two serious mental disorders. This study aimed to assess the characteristics of brain activation during the two different cognitive tasks in SZ and MDD patients. Methods: This study recruited 30 patients with SZ, 30 patients with MDD, and 30 demographically matched healthy controls (HCs). The hemodynamic changes of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) were measured using 32-channel fNIRS during performance of the TOL task and VFT task. Results: SZ patients showed poorer VFT performance than MDD patients and HCs, and the two patient groups showed poorer TOL performance than HCs. Compared to HCs, both of the patient groups exhibited a significant decreased activation in the extensive PFC. Particularly in certain channels in the dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC), SZ patients exhibited significantly decreased hemodynamic changes than the MDD patients. Conclusions: Patients with SZ and MDD have different levels of impairment in different cognitive domains and different patterns of brain activation during the two cognitive tasks. Further research is needed to determine the use of fNIRS for clinical evaluation and diagnosis.
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Xiang et al. (2021) conducted a cross-sectional in Schizophrenia and Major Depressive Disorder (n=90). Verbal Fluency Task (VFT) and Tower of London (TOL) task vs. Healthy controls was evaluated on Mean [oxy-Hb] changes in the prefrontal cortex (p=<0.05). Patients with schizophrenia and major depressive disorder exhibited significantly decreased prefrontal cortex activation during cognitive tasks compared to healthy controls, with schizophrenia patients showing significantly less activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex than MDD patients.
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