PhD in Psychology Neuroscience and Data Science
ProfessorPoliti Pierluigi

STUDY EXPLORING CROSS-SCALE DYSCONNECTIVITY IN RESTING-STATE FMRI IN SCHIZOPHRENIA AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH DELUSIONAL SYMPTOMS.

Delusions are core symptoms of the schizophrenia spectrum. The presence of false and incorrigible beliefs is well described from a clinical perspective, although the neural correlates of such deficits in synchronization between the subject’s beliefs and its own environment remain unclear. The aim of the present study is to assess whether the desynchronization on a phenomenological level observed in delusions can be related to a desynchronization at different levels of the resting-state fMRI dynamics of the brain.  We will test whether the intra-regional, inter-regional and global levels of activity were subject to an aberrant cross-scale interaction, which we hypothesized to be an important aspect of delusion formation. According to the three levels considered, local connectivity (ReHo), long-range connectivity, and global signal connectivity will be measured in two independent samples containing both schizophrenic and neurotypical subjects.