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We investigated the influence of anger processing on cognitive control in male schizophrenia patients presenting violent behaviors. We recruited 23 patients without and 24 patients with (SCZ+V) a history of violent behaviors, as well as 22 healthy non-violent men. Participants were administered an affective (angry-neutral faces) Go/NoGo task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. We found a reduced activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in SCZ+V patients specifically when inhibiting a response while viewing angry faces. These results show an inability of SCZ+V to recruit a core region of the (inhibitory) cognitive control network in the context of anger., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental illness that poses significant challenges. While many pharmacological and psychosocial interventions are available, many treatment-resistant schizophrenia patients continue to suffer from persistent psychotic symptoms, notably auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH), which are highly disabling. This unmet clinical need requires new innovative treatment options. Recently, a psychological therapy using computerized technology has shown large therapeutic effects on AVH severity by enabling patients to engage in a dialogue with a computerized representation of their voices. These very promising results have been extended by our team using immersive virtual reality (VR). Our study was a 7-week phase-II, randomized, partial cross-over trial. Nineteen schizophrenia patients with refractory AVH were recruited and randomly allocated to either VR-assisted therapy (VRT) or treatment-as-usual (TAU). The group allocated to TAU consisted of antipsychotic treatment and usual meetings with clinicians. The TAU group then received a delayed 7weeks of VRT. A follow-up was ensured 3months after the last VRT therapy session. Changes in psychiatric symptoms, before and after TAU or VRT, were assessed using a linear mixed-effects model. Our findings showed that VRT produced significant improvements in AVH severity, depressive symptoms and quality of life that lasted at the 3-month follow-up period. Consistent with previous research, our results suggest that VRT might be efficacious in reducing AVH related distress. The therapeutic effects of VRT on the distress associated with the voices were particularly prominent (d=1.2). VRT is a highly novel and promising intervention for refractory AVH in schizophrenia., (Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Working memory deficits have been widely reported in schizophrenia, and may result from inefficient binding processes. These processes, and their neural correlates, remain understudied in schizophrenia. Thus, we designed an FMRI study aimed at investigating the neural correlates of both passive and active binding in working memory in schizophrenia. Nineteen patients with schizophrenia and 23 matched controls were recruited to perform a working memory binding task, in which they were instructed to memorize three letters and three spatial locations. In the passive binding condition, letters and spatial locations were directly presented as bound. Conversely, in the active binding condition, words and spatial locations were presented as separated, and participants were instructed to intentionally create associations between them. Patients exhibited a similar performance to the controls for the passive binding condition, but a significantly lower performance for the active binding. FMRI analyses revealed that this active binding deficit was related to aberrant activity in the posterior parietal cortex and the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. This study provides initial evidence of a specific deficit for actively binding information in schizophrenia, which is linked to dysfunctions in the neural networks underlying attention, manipulation of information, and encoding strategies. Together, our results suggest that all these dysfunctions may be targets for neuromodulation interventions known to improve cognitive deficits in schizophrenia., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Highly prevalent in schizophrenia, tobacco smoking substantially increases the risk of cardiac-related death. Compared to the general population, tobacco smoking cessation rates are lower in schizophrenia. Unfortunately, the reasons for these low cessation rates remain poorly understood. Recently, it has been shown that tobacco cravings are increased in schizophrenia smokers compared to smokers with no comorbid psychiatric disorder. In view of these results, we sought to examine - for the first time - the neurophysiologic responses elicited by cigarette cues in schizophrenia smokers. We hypothesized that cigarettes cues would elicit increased activations in brain regions involved in drug cravings in schizophrenia smokers relative to control smokers., Methods: Smokers with (n=18) and without (n=24) schizophrenia (DSM-IV criteria) were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while viewing appetitive cigarette images., Results: Schizophrenia smokers and smokers with no psychiatric comorbidity did not differ in subjective cravings in response to appetitive smoking cues. However, in schizophrenia smokers relative to control smokers, we found that appetitive cigarette cues triggered increased activations of the bilateral ventro-medial prefrontal cortex, a core region of the brain reward system. Moreover, a negative correlation was observed between cigarette cravings and activations of the right ventro-medial prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia smokers., Discussion: The current results highlight a key role of the brain reward system in cigarette craving in schizophrenia, and suggest that the neurophysiologic mechanisms involved in the regulation of cue-induced cigarette craving are impaired in this population., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)