in press). Emotion effects on attention, amygdala activation, and functional connectivity in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin

Emotional abnormalities are a critical clinical feature of schizophrenia (SCZ), but complete understanding of their underlying neuropathology is lacking. Numerous studies have examined amygdala activation in response to affective stimuli in SCZ, but no consensus has emerged. However, behavioral studies examining ‘‘in-the-moment’ ’ processing of affect have suggested intact emotional processing in SCZ. To examine which aspects of emotional processing may be impaired in SCZ, we combined behavior and neuro-imaging to investigate effects of aversive stimuli during minimal cognitive engagement, at the level of behavior, amygdala recruitment, and its whole-brain task-based functional connectivity (tb-fcMRI) because impairments may manifest when examining across-region functional in-tegration. Twenty-eight patients and 24 matched controls underwent rapid event-related fMRI at 3 T while perform-ing a simple perceptual decision task with negative or neu-tral distraction. We examined perceptual decision slowing, amygdala activation, and whole-brain amygdala tb-fcMRI, while ensuring group signal-to-noise profile matching. Fol-lowing scanning, subjects rated all images for experienced arousal and valence. No significant group differences emerged for negative vs neutral reaction time, emotional ratings across groups, or amygdala activation. However, even in the absence of behavioral or activation differences, SCZ subjects demonstrated significantly weaker amyg-dala-prefrontal cortical coupling, specifically during nega-tive distraction. Whereas in-the-moment perception, behavioral response, and amygdala recruitment to negative stimuli during minimal cognitive load seem to be intact, there is evidence of aberrant amygdala-prefrontal integra-tion in SCZ subjects. Such abnormalities may prove critical for understanding disturbances in patients ’ ability to use affective cues when guiding higher level cognitive processes needed in social interactions