Background

Social cognition impairment is a key phenomenon in serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorder (BPD). Although genetic and neurobiological studies have suggested common neural correlates, here we hypothesized that a fundamental dissociation of social processing occurs at an early level in these conditions.

Methods

Based on the hypothesis that key structures in the social brain, namely the temporoparietal junction, should present distinctive features in SCZ and BPD during low-level social judgment, we conducted a case-control study in SCZ (n = 20) and BPD (n = 20) patients and controls (n = 20), using task-based fMRI during a Theory of Mind (ToM) visual paradigm leading to interpretation of social meaning based on simple geometric figures.

Results

We found opposite neural responses in two core ToM regions: SCZ patients showed social content-related deactivation (relative to controls and BPD) of the right supramarginal gyrus, while the opposite pattern was found in BPD; reverse patterns, relative to controls and SCZ, were found in the left posterior superior temporal gyrus, a region involved in inferring other’s intentions. Receiver-operating-characteristic curve analysis showed 88% accuracy in discriminating the two clinical groups based on these neural responses.

Conclusions

These contrasting activation patterns of the temporoparietal junction in SCZ and BPD represent mechanistic differences of social cognitive dysfunction that may be explored as biomarkers or therapeutic targets.

中文翻译：

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精神分裂症和双相情感障碍中内隐社会解释的早期神经处理的基本区别

背景

社会认知障碍是精神分裂症（SCZ）和双相情感障碍（BPD）等严重精神障碍的关键现象。尽管遗传和神经生物学研究表明了常见的神经相关性，但我们假设在这些条件下，社会处理的基本解离发生在早期水平。

方法

基于社会大脑中的关键结构，即颞顶交界处，在低水平的社会判断过程中应该在 SCZ 和 BPD 中呈现独特特征的假设，我们在 SCZ (n = 20) 和 BPD (n = 20) 患者和对照组 (n = 20)，在心智理论 (ToM) 视觉范式中使用基于任务的 fMRI，从而基于简单的几何图形解释社会意义。

结果

我们在两个核心 ToM 区域发现了相反的神经反应：SCZ 患者的右侧缘上回表现出与社会内容相关的失活（相对于对照组和 BPD），而在 BPD 中发现了相反的模式；相对于对照组和 SCZ，在左后颞上回发现了相反的模式，该区域涉及推断他人的意图。接受者操作特征曲线分析显示，根据这些神经反应区分两个临床组的准确率为 88%。

结论

SCZ 和 BPD 颞顶交界处的这些对比激活模式代表了社会认知功能障碍的机制差异，可以作为生物标志物或治疗靶点进行探索。