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F49. NEURAL CORRELATES OF LANGUAGE AND SPEECH DISTURBANCES IN SCHIZOPHRENIA
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Abstract:
BACKGROUND: Language and speech disturbances, or formal thought disorder (FTD), are a core symptom of schizophrenia. Historically this symptom group was introduced as disturbances in thought, however, contemporary research redefined these symptoms as severe language and speech disturbances, since these disturbances can only be observed as the expression of thought through language. A previous meta-analysis on the neural correlates of FTD in schizophrenia revealed that FTD in schizophrenia may be associated with both structural and functional aberrations in the language network. However, there is no research investigating the direct relationship between distortions in language and speech disturbances and aberrations in the language pathways in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. This study addresses this question by specifically looking at neural correlates of language and speech disturbances, rather than at FTD. Based on previous literature on this relation in FTD a negative relationship is expected between fractional anisotropy (FA) values of the language tracts and the language and speech measures in patients. A reverse, positive relationship is expected for mean diffusivity (MD) values and language and speech measures. METHODS: A total of 25 patients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder and 25 healthy controls were included at the UMC Utrecht hospital. Participants were included if they were age eighteen or above and a native speaker of Dutch. Spontaneous speech was collected by means of a semi-structured interview. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed for measures of both the form and the meaning of the language that was produced. Diffuse Tensor Imaging (DTI) scans were obtained for all participants. Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) was used to extract FA and MD values of the main tracts (ROIs) important for language processing white matter tracts. RESULTS: Overall, the schizophrenia spectrum patients spoke slower and produced fewer words than the healthy controls. TBSS analyses showed significant differences between patients and healthy controls, revealing lower FA and higher MD in the patient group as compared to healthy controls. The integrity of the language tracts bilaterally was predictive of language and speech measures in patients, but less so in healthy controls. DISCUSSION: Our results indicate that white matter integrity of language tracts is predictive of language and speech disturbances in patients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder, but not in healthy controls. This study adds to the understanding of FTD as a disturbance of language and speech, by proving a direct relationship between language and speech disturbances in schizophrenia and structural aberrations in the language network.
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Keyword:
Poster Session II
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URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6455385/
https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbz018.461
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