Objective: Apathy is a common negative symptom in schizophrenia. The authors investigated neuropsychological performance and regional brain volumes in schizophrenia patients with high versus low levels of apathy.

Method: Schizophrenia patients with low apathy levels (N=18) and high apathy levels (N=20) and 12 healthy comparison subjects completed neuropsychological testing as well as magnetic resonance imaging scanning to obtain lobar volumes after total intracranial volume was controlled.

Results: The high apathy group scored lower than comparison subjects on rapid visuomotor sequencing and verbal learning/recall. The high apathy group had lower performance IQ scores than the low apathy and comparison groups. Only the high apathy group showed significantly reduced bilateral frontal lobe volumes relative to comparison subjects; both schizophrenia patient groups showed bilateral temporal lobe volume reductions.

Conclusions: The present findings are consistent with studies in other disorders showing frontal lobe involvement in apathy.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.161.1.157DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

high apathy
16
frontal lobe
12
comparison subjects
12
apathy group
12
apathy
9
lobe volume
8
schizophrenia patients
8
low apathy
8
apathy levels
8
high
5

Similar Publications

Objectives: The oldest old adults (90+) constitute the fastest growing demographic at highest dementia risk among older adults. Depression, a common risk factor, inherently presents with heterogeneous clinical manifestations. Here, we explored the associations of the predominant depression dimensions with cognition in the LifeAfter90 study.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Individuals avoid spending cognitive effort unless expected rewards offset the perceived costs. Recent work employing tasks that provide explicit information about demands and incentives, suggests causal involvement of the Frontopolar Cortex (FPC) in effort-based decision-making. Using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), we examined whether the FPC's role in motivating effort generalizes to sequential choice problems in which task demand and reward rates vary indirectly and as a function of experience.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Social anxiety undermines prosocial behaviors when required effort.

Int J Clin Health Psychol

December 2024

Research Center of Mental Health Education, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China.

Social anxiety impairs interpersonal relationships, which rely heavily on prosocial behaviors essential for healthy social interactions. The influence of social anxiety on the dynamics of helping others, through stages of prosocial choice stimulus presentation and effort, is not well understood. This study combines two experiments that integrate effort-based decision-making tasks with electroencephalography to distinguish between the choice stimulus presentation and effort phases of prosocial behavior.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Purpose: Parkinson's disease (PD) significantly impacts the quality of life via both motor and nonmotor symptoms. Exercise is a valuable nonpharmacological intervention that can alleviate PD symptoms and slow disease progression. Understanding the factors that motivate and restrict exercise in PD patients is essential for promoting engagement.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Subthalamic nucleus oscillations during facial emotion processing and apathy in Parkinson's disease.

J Affect Disord

January 2025

Center for Functional Neurosurgery, Department of Neurosurgery, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China. Electronic address:

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is primarily characterized by motor symptoms, but patients also experience a relatively high prevalence of non-motor symptoms, including emotional and cognitive impairments. While the subthalamic nucleus (STN) is a common target for deep brain stimulation to treat motor symptoms in PD, its role in emotion processing is still under investigation. This study examines the subthalamic neural oscillatory activities during facial emotion processing and its association with affective characteristics.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!