Dopamine is involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Disrupted salience processing by the salience network (SN) may be a central link between dysregulated dopamine function and psychotic symptoms. However, dopaminergic influence on the SN and its presumed influence on psychotic and subpsychotic symptoms or psychotic-like experiences in healthy individuals remain unclear. Therefore, we investigated dopamine-induced changes in functional connectivity of the right anterior insula (rAI), a central SN hub, and their association with psychotic-like experiences. We enrolled 54 healthy, right-handed male subjects in a randomized, double-blind, cross-sectional placebo-controlled experiment. Psychotic-like experiences were assessed using the revised Exceptional Experiences Questionnaire (PAGE-R). They then received either placebo (n = 32) or 200 mg L-DOPA (n = 33), a dopamine precursor, orally and underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. In a seed-to-voxel approach, we analyzed dopamine-induced changes in functional connectivity of the rAI and assessed the relationship between functional connectivity changes and PAGE-R score. L-DOPA reduced functional connectivity between the rAI and the left auditory cortex planum polare. In the placebo group, we found a strong negative correlation between PAGE-R score and rAI to planum polare functional connectivity; in the L-DOPA group, there was a strong positive correlation between PAGE-R score and functional connectivity between rAI and planum polare. The PAGE-R score explained about 30% of the functional connectivity variation between rAI and planum polare in the two groups. Our findings suggest that psychotic-like experiences are associated with dopamine-induced disruption of auditory input to the SN, which may lead to aberrant attribution of salience.

中文翻译：

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多巴胺诱导显着性网络和听觉皮层之间有精神病样经历的受试者之间的不连通性：一项随机双盲安慰剂对照研究。

多巴胺与精神分裂症的病理生理有关。显着性网络（SN）破坏的显着性处理可能是多巴胺功能失调与精神病性症状之间的重要联系。但是，尚不清楚多巴胺能对SN的影响及其对健康个体的精神病和亚精神病症状或类似精神病的经历的影响。因此，我们调查了多巴胺引起的右前岛（rAI），中央SN枢纽的功能连接性变化及其与类似精神病的经历的关系。我们在一项随机，双盲，横断面安慰剂对照实验中纳入了54位健康，惯用右手的男性受试者。使用修订后的“特殊经历调查表”（PAGE-R）评估类似精神病的经历。然后，他们接受了安慰剂（n = 32）或200 mg L-DOPA（n＝ 33），多巴胺前体，经口服并经历静止状态功能磁共振成像。在从种子到体素的方法中，我们分析了多巴胺诱导的rAI的功能连通性变化，并评估了功能连通性变化与PAGE-R评分之间的关​​系。L-DOPA降低了rAI与左听皮层平面极之间的功能连接。在安慰剂组中，我们发现PAGE-R评分与rAI与平面极化极功能连通性之间存在极强的负相关性。在L-DOPA组中，PAGE-R评分与rAI和平面极化极之间的功能连通性之间存在很强的正相关。PAGE-R评分解释了两组中rAI和平面极化之间的功能连接性变化的大约30％。