Brain Regions Associated with Ambivalence in Healthy Adults: A PET Correlation Study / 신경정신의학

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: The present study investigated the brain regions that correlate with ambivalence in schizotypy, a latent personality organization that is proposed to precede and contribute to the liability of developing schizophrenia. METHODS: Using 18-FDG PET scan, we investigated the brain activity of twenty one normal healthy subjects during the resting state. Questionnaires, including the Korean Version of Schizotypal Ambivalence Scale (K-SAS), were administrated after the scan in order to assess the self-rated individual differences in ambivalence. RESULTS: The Schzotypal Ambivalence Scale (SAS) scores showed positive correlation with the metabolic rates in the left parahippocampal gyrus and the fornix. In contrast, the Ambivalence over Expression of Emotion Questionnaire (AEQ) scores showed negative correlation with the metabolic rates in the right putamen. Although scores of the two ambivalence scales correlated positively (Pearson correlation coefficient 0.477, p<0.050), there was no substantial overlap between the neural correlates. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that the hippocampal complex, which dysfunction has been reported to correlate with impaired information processing in schizophrenia, may underlie schizotypal ambivalence.