Dysfunction of ventrolateral prefrontal cortex underlying social anxiety disorder: A multi-channel NIRS study.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is characterized by strong fear and anxiety during social interactions. Although ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) activity in response to emotional stimuli is related to pathological anxiety, little is known about the relationship between VLPFC activity and social anxiety. This study aimed to investigate whether VLPFC activity was involved in SAD and whether VLPFC activity was related to the level of social anxiety.

Differential spatiotemporal characteristics of the prefrontal hemodynamic response and their association with functional impairment in schizophrenia and major depression.

Recent neuroimaging studies have shown similarities and differences in prefrontal abnormalities between patients with schizophrenia (SZ) and major depressive disorder (MDD). However, the differential spatiotemporal characteristics of these abnormalities and their association with functional impairment remain unclear. To elucidate differential brain pathophysiology in these disorders, we used multichannel near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to measure the spatiotemporal characteristics of prefrontal activation and investigated their association with global functioning levels.

Reduced but broader prefrontal activity in patients with schizophrenia during n-back working memory tasks: a multi-channel near-infrared spectroscopy study.

Background: Caudal regions of the prefrontal cortex, including the dorsolateral (DLPFC) and ventrolateral (VLPFC) prefrontal cortex, are involved in essential cognitive functions such as working memory. In contrast, more rostral regions, such as the frontopolar cortex (FpC), have integrative functions among cognitive functions and thereby contribute crucially to real-world social activity. Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have shown patients with schizophrenia had different DLPFC activity pattern in response to cognitive load changes compared to healthy controls; however, the spatial relationship between the caudal and rostral prefrontal activation has not been evaluated under less-constrained conditions.

Functional abnormalities in the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex during a semantic fluency task, and their association with thought disorder in patients with schizophrenia.

Thought disorder is one of the primary symptoms in schizophrenia, yet the neural correlates and related semantic processing abnormalities remain unclear. We aimed to investigate the relationship between functional prefrontal abnormalities and thought disorder in schizophrenia using 2 types of verbal fluency tasks: the letter fluency task (LFT) and the category fluency task (CFT). Fifty-six adult patients with schizophrenia and 56 healthy controls matched for age, gender, and IQ participated in the study.

Different hemodynamic response patterns in the prefrontal cortical sub-regions according to the clinical stages of psychosis.

Background: Symptomatic and functional outcomes in schizophrenia are associated with the duration of untreated psychosis. However, no candidate biomarkers have been adopted in clinical settings. Multichannel near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), which can easily and noninvasively measure hemodynamics over the prefrontal cortex, is a candidate instrument for clinical use.

Association between severe dorsolateral prefrontal dysfunction during random number generation and earlier onset in schizophrenia.

Objectives: Schizophrenia involves impairment in attention, working memory and executive processes associated with prefrontal cortical function, an essential contributor of social functioning. Age at onset is a major factor for predicting social outcome in schizophrenia. In clinical settings, we need an objective assessment tool for evaluating prefrontal function and social outcome.

Prefrontal cortex activity during response inhibition associated with excitement symptoms in schizophrenia.

Previous fMRI studies of schizophrenia have shown a prefrontal abnormality during response inhibition. However, the association with the clinical symptoms in schizophrenia remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to clarify the association of psychotic symptoms with the prefrontal function during response inhibition in patients with schizophrenia.