Face tuning in schizophrenia: underwriting brain networks

面孔是社会认知、有效人际交往和非语言交流中有价值的日常生活信号。该项目旨在研究精神分裂症（SZ）的类脸非脸图像处理和承保脑网络。考虑到这个目的，我们打算使用最近创建的类似人脸的非人脸图像（例如Face-n-Food和Face-n-Thing显示）。这些图像的主要优点是单个成分不会明确地触发特定于面部的处理，而在通常用于调查面部感知的图像中（如照片或描述），仅仅是典型线索的出现就已经暗示了面部的存在。以往的研究主要局限于人脸处理的脑区定位。提出这一建议的重要理由是希望揭示典型发展个体和SZ患者的承承性脑网络的时间进程和动态地形，从而最终建立典型SZ的社会认知概况。这部分项目的重点将放在调查面部调节和其他社会认知能力之间的联系，如阅读构成社会能力核心的身体和眼睛语言，以及支持这些能力的大脑网络之间可能的交流。我们的研究概念代表了多模态脑成像（fMRI提供高空间分辨率，MEG提供高时间分辨率）与视觉心理物理学的具有挑战性的结合。通过使用脑成像和视觉心理物理学，我们计划澄清：(i)面部敏感性背后的神经网络是否在SZ中异常，特别是在神经通信和半球内和半球间功能连接的意义上；（ii）表现行为测量的差异如何与潜在大脑网络的可能差异相关联，以及（iii） SZ大脑连接的改变是否具有性别特异性。此外，我们打算揭示社会脑关键枢纽的功能分工，并对社会脑不可或缺的组成部分进行精确的功能映射，其功能细分的差异，以及它们对面部调谐网络之间神经元通信的贡献。这一结果将大大有助于我们理解SZ的面部处理和其他社会认知能力。

Faces represent valuable daily life signals for social cognition, effective interpersonal interaction and non-verbal communication. The project is aimed at investigation of processing of face-like non-face images and underwriting brain networks in schizophrenia (SZ). With this purpose in mind, we intend to use recently created face-like non-face images (such as Face-n-Food and Face-n-Thing displays). The primary advantage of these images is that single components do not explicitly trigger face-specific processing, whereas in images commonly used for investigating face perception (such as photographs or depictions), the mere occurrence of typical cues already implicates face presence. Previous work is mainly restricted to localization of brain regions underlying face processing. The important rationale for this proposal is a desire to uncover the time courses and dynamic topography of underwriting brain networks in typically developing individuals and SZ patients in order to eventually establish a social cognitive profile typical of SZ. The focus of this part of the project will be set on investigation of the links between the face tuning and other social-cognitive abilities such as reading of body and eyes language that constitute a core of social competence as well as on possible communication between brain networks supporting these abilities. Our research concept represents a challenging combination of multimodal brain imaging (fMRI providing for high spatial resolution and MEG providing for high temporal resolution) with visual psychophysics. By using brain imaging along with visual psychophysics, we plan to clarify: (i) whether neural networks underlying face sensitivity are aberrant in SZ, in particular, in the sense of neural communication and functional intra- and interhemispheric brain connectivity; (ii) how differences in behavioral measures of performance relate to possible differences in the underlying brain networks, and (iii) whether alterations in brain connectivity in SZ are sex specific. In addition, we intend to uncover functional division of labor in the key hubs of the social brain, and undertake precise functional mapping of the indispensable components of the social brain, divergence in their functional subdivisions, and their contribution to neuronal communication between the networks underlying face tuning. The outcome will substantially contribute to our understanding of face processing and other social cognitive abilities in SZ.