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Abstract #1036

Thalamic-Auditory Cortical-Hippocampal Dysconnectivity in First-Episode Schizophrenia Patients with Auditory Verbal Hallucinations

Long-Biao Cui1, Baojuan Li2, Yi-Bin Xi1, and Hong Yin1

1Xijing Hospital, Fourth Mililtary Medical University, Xi'an, China, People's Republic of, 2School of Biomedical Engineering, Fourth Mililtary Medical University, Xi'an, China, People's Republic of

We found hyperconnectivity from the thalamus to auditory cortex and hypoconnectivity from the auditory cortex to the hippocampus in AVHs. The thalamic-auditory cortical-hippocampal circuit seems to be crucial for AVHs in SZ. In SZ patients with AVHs, there is a failure to attenuate the sensitivity of auditory cortex to thalamic inputs with a complementary down-regulation of hippocampal responses to ascending auditory input. These findings are consistent with current thinking about dysconnection syndromes in SZ; particularly the aberrant modulation of neuromodulatory gain control and its role assigning aberrant precision or salience to sensory evidence in conditions like SZ. Our findings might provide support for dysconnectivity hypothesis of AVHs associated with auditory/language-processing regions, default mode regions, and other networks (insula and striatum), as reviewed most recently. Dysconnectivity of this circuit may also serve as a potential diagnostic biomarker and therapeutic target of AVHs in SZ based on the direct evidence in vivo we found.

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