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Decreased integrity of the fronto-temporal fibers of the left inferior occipito-frontal fasciculus associated with auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia

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Abstract

Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) have been proposed to result from altered connectivity between frontal speech production regions and temporal speech perception regions. Whilst the dorsal language pathway, serviced by the arcuate fasciculus, has been extensively studied in relation to AVH, the ventral language pathway, serviced by the inferior occipito-frontal fasciculus (IOFF) has been rarely studied in relation to AVH. This study examined whether structural changes in anatomically defined subregions of the IOFF were associated with AVH in patients with schizophrenia. Diffusion tensor imaging scans and clinical data were obtained from the Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank for 113 schizophrenia patients, of whom 39 had lifetime experience of AVH (18 had current AVH, 21 had remitted AVH), 74 had no lifetime experience of AVH, and 40 healthy controls. Schizophrenia patients with a lifetime experience of AVH exhibited reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) in the fronto-temporal fibers of the left IOFF compared to both healthy controls and schizophrenia patients without AVH. In contrast, structural abnormalities in the temporal and occipital regions of the IOFF were observed bilaterally in both patient groups, relative to the healthy controls. These results suggest that while changes in the structural integrity of the bilateral IOFF are associated with schizophrenia per se, integrity reductions in the fronto-temporal fibers of the left IOFF may be specifically associated with AVH.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Schizophrenia Research Institute using data from the Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank, funded by NHMRC Enabling Grant (No.386500) held by V Carr, U Schall, R Scott, A Jablensky, B Mowry, P Michie, S Catts, F Henskens and C Pantelis (Chief Investigators), and the Pratt Foundation, Ramsay Health Care, the Viertel Charitable Foundation, as well the Schizophrenia Research Institute, using an infrastructure grant from the NSW Ministry of Health. Thomas Whitford is supported by a Discovery Project from the Australian Research Council (DP140104394), a Career Development Fellowship from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (APP1090507), and a Young Investigator Award (Barbara and John Streicker Investigator) from the NARSAD Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (17537). Simon McCarthy-Jones is supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award (DE140101077). The authors thank Nathan G. Mifsud for his help with the image preparation.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

    Lena K. L. Oestreich & Thomas J. Whitford

  2. ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia

    Simon McCarthy-Jones

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Simon McCarthy-Jones

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  1. Lena K. L. Oestreich
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  2. Simon McCarthy-Jones
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Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank

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Correspondence to Lena K. L. Oestreich.

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Oestreich, L.K.L., McCarthy-Jones, S., Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank. et al. Decreased integrity of the fronto-temporal fibers of the left inferior occipito-frontal fasciculus associated with auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia. Brain Imaging and Behavior 10, 445–454 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-015-9421-5

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