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Childhood trauma strongly impacts emotional responses in schizophrenia. We have explored an association between early trauma and the amygdala functional connectivity using generalized psychophysiological interaction during an emotional task. Twenty-one schizophrenia patients and twenty-five controls were included. In schizophrenia patients, higher levels of sexual abuse and physical neglect during childhood were associated with decreased connectivity between the amygdala and the posterior cingulate/precuneus region. Additionally, patients showed decreased coupling between the amygdala and the posterior cingulate/precuneus region compared to controls. These findings suggest that early trauma could impact later connectivity in specific stress-related circuits affecting self-consciousness and social cognition in schizophrenia., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Functional dysconnection is increasingly recognized as a core pathological feature in schizophrenia. Aberrant interactions between regions of the cortico-limbic circuitmay underpin the abnormal emotional processing associated with this illness. We used a functionalmagnetic resonance imaging paradigmdesigned to dissociate the various components of the corticolimbic circuit (i.e. a ventral automatic circuit that is intertwined with a dorsal cognitive circuit), to explore bottom-up appraisal as well as top-down control during emotion processing. In schizophrenia patients compared with healthy controls, bottom-up processes were associated with reduced interaction between the amygdala and both the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Contrariwise, top-down control processes led to stronger connectivity between the ventral affective and the dorsal cognitive circuits, i.e. heightened interactions between the ventral ACC and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex as well as between dorsal and ventral ACC. These findings offer a comprehensive view of the cortico-limbic dysfunction in schizophrenia. They confirmprevious results of impaired propagation of information between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex and suggest a defective functional segregation in the dorsal cognitive part of the cortico-limbic circuit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]