Causal Role of Medial Prefrontal Neural Activity in Self-Agency in Schizophrenia
University of California, San Francisco
Summary
This randomized controlled trial in healthy controls (HC) and patients with schizophrenia (SZ) aims to examine 1) the underlying cognitive and neural cause of self-agency deficits in SZ; 2) the responsiveness to a novel navigated repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (nrTMS) target in the medial/superior prefrontal cortex (mPFC); and 3) how modulation of mPFC activity impacts the larger self-agency network to mediate changes in self-agency judgments. Our overall hypothesis is that increased mPFC excitability by active high-frequency nrTMS in HC and SZ will induce behavioral improvements in self-agency and neural changes in the larger self-agency network that will generalize to improvements in overall cognition, symptoms and daily functioning, and will likely lead to the development of new effective neuromodulation therapies in patients with schizophrenia.
Description
This longitudinal mechanistic randomized controlled trial in patients with schizophrenia (SZ) and matched healthy controls (HC) examines the underlying cause of self-agency deficits in SZ and their responsiveness to navigated repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (nrTMS) of the medial prefrontal cortex. Using a multimodal neuroimaging approach that combines structural MRI with functional magnetoencephalography imaging (MEGI) and nrTMS that is integrated with cognitive and clinical assessments, this research provides an unprecedented rigorous assessment of the neural and cognitive basis…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18–64 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: All Subjects: * Good general physical health * English is first language * No neurological disorder * Meets MRI criteria * No current alcohol or substance use disorder Schizophrenia participants: * Schizophrenia diagnosis of any illness duration, * Clinical stability, defined as 12 weeks outpatient status and 4 weeks low to moderate dose of antipsychotic medication (\<1000 mg. chlorpromazine equivalents), plus stable doses of all other psychotropic medications Exclusion Criteria: All Subjects: * Implanted metallic parts of implanted electronic devices * Pregnant or t…
Interventions
- DeviceTMS
The investigators will use the NEXSTIM NAVIGATED BRAIN STIMULATION (NBS) SYSTEM to apply 10 Hz nrTMS to healthy controls (HC) and schizophrenia patients (SZ)
Location
- UCSFSan Francisco, California