Evidence for Top-Down Dysregulation of Primary Visual Processes in Children and Adolescents with Schizophrenia

Tonya White^1,2, Marcus N. Schmidt¹, Steen Moeller²

Studies support disrupted neural connectivity in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Many of these studies focus on the functional connectivity between distant brain regions. In order to assess local connectivity in patients with schizophrenia, we studied the entrainment of neurons with differing frequencies of a flashing checkerboard fMRI paradigm. Entrainment is thought to reflect local neuronal circuitry. While we did not find abnormalities in entrainment between patients and controls, we did find decreased spatial activity of the BOLD signal in the patient group. This may reflect aberrant top-down control of primary sensory neural circuits in schizophrenia.