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18FDG PET study of amygdalar activity during facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia

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Abstract

The role of the amygdala during facial emotion recognition (FER) tasks as well as its clinical implications in schizophrenia patients remains unclear. While most of authors have reported hypoactivation, recently it has been suggested that patients may also exhibit hyperactivation. We studied amygdalar response during a previously validated FER task using 18[F] fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18FDG-PET) technique in ten right-handed healthy volunteers and 11 right-handed non acute patients with schizophrenia. Both groups underwent two scans on different days in a random order; each consisted of 17 1/2 min of continuous emotional and control tasks. Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) 2 analysis with a region of interest approach was carried out. Left amygdalar hyperactivation among the schizophrenia group was shown in both emotional and control tasks when compared to healthy subjects. The right amygdala showed no differential activation in any of the tasks. Patients diagnosed with schizophrenia exhibit a non-task specific amygdalar hyperactivation during a continuous emotional and non-emotional task when compared to matched healthy controls.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Rosa Aragones for her help, Jenny Coates and Alejandra Bruna for assistance with the text and Drs. Gur from Brain Behavior Laboratory for allowing us to use their pictures. The study was supported by “Premi Fi de Residencia 2003” from the Hospital Clinic (Barcelona) and, in part, by the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (FIS G03/185) and the Spanish Ministry of Health, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, CIBERSAM (Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental)CB07/09/0005 and Catalonia Government, DURSI (Departamento de universidades, investigación y sociedad de la información) 2005SGR00223 as well as by the generous contribution of the Riera-Berg family.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Neuroscience, Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, Spain

    Emilio Fernandez-Egea, Eduard Parellada, Anna Mane, Guillermo Horga & Miguel Bernardo

  2. Nuclear Medicine, Institut de Diagnostic per Imatge, Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, Spain

    Francisco Lomeña & Javier Pavia

  3. Unitat de Biofísica i Bioengineria, Facultat de Medicina, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Carles Falcon

  4. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Bioingeneria, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (CIBER-BBN), Valladolid, Spain

    Carles Falcon & Javier Pavia

  5. Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques Augusti Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain

    Eduard Parellada, Francisco Lomeña, Carles Falcon, Javier Pavia & Miguel Bernardo

  6. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Barcelona, Spain

    Eduard Parellada & Miguel Bernardo

  7. Servei de Psiquiatría, Institut Clínic de Neurociències, Hospital Clínic, C/Villarroel, 170, 08036, Barcelona, Spain

    Emilio Fernandez-Egea

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  1. Emilio Fernandez-Egea
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  2. Eduard Parellada
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  4. Carles Falcon
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  8. Miguel Bernardo
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Correspondence to Emilio Fernandez-Egea.

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Fernandez-Egea, E., Parellada, E., Lomeña, F. et al. 18FDG PET study of amygdalar activity during facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 260, 69–76 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-009-0020-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-009-0020-6

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