Exploring psychotic symptoms: a comparison of motor related neuronal activation during and after acute psychosis Full Text
BMC Psychiatry, 08/08/2012
Rains LS et al. – The findings lend further credence to the theory that a dysfunction in the sensory feedback system located in the inferior parietal lobe (IPL), and which is thought to underlie the sense of agency, may contribute to the aetiology of delusions of control.
Methods- The authors studied brain activation using fMRI during a motor task in 11 patients with schizophrenia and 9 healthy controls.
- The patient group was tested at two time points separated by 6[EN DASH]8weeks.
- At initial testing, the patient group had a mean Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale score of 56.3, and showed significantly increased activation within the left inferior parietal lobe (IPL) compared to controls.
- Patients reported significantly decreased positive symptoms at 6[EN DASH]8week followup and IPL activation had returned to normal.
- The results demonstrate that first-rank positive symptoms are associated with hyperactivation in the secondary somatosensory cortex (IPL).
