Reduced Resting-State Connectivity in the Precuneus is Correlated with Apathy in Patients with Schizophrenia

A diagnosis of schizophrenia is associated with a heterogeneous psychopathology including positive and negative symptoms. The disconnection hypothesis, an early pathophysiological framework conceptualizes the diversity of symptoms as a result of disconnections in neural networks. In line with this hypothesis, previous neuroimaging studies of patients with schizophrenia reported alterations within the default mode network (DMN), the most prominent network at rest. The aim of the present study was to investigate the functional connectivity during rest in patients with schizophrenia and with healthy individuals and explore whether observed functional alterations are related to the psychopathology of patients. Therefore, functional magnetic resonance images at rest were recorded of 35 patients with schizophrenia and 41 healthy individuals. Independent component analysis (ICA) was used to extract resting state networks. Comparing ICA results between groups indicated alterations only within the network of the DMN. More explicitly, reduced connectivity in the precuneus was observed in patients with schizophrenia compared to healthy controls. Connectivity in this area was negatively correlated with the severity of negative symptoms, more specifically with the domain of apathy. Taken together, the current results provide further evidence for a role DMN alterations might play in schizophrenia and especially in negative symptoms such as apathy.