Increased Local Spontaneous Neural Activity in the Left Precuneus Specific to Auditory Verbal Hallucinations of Schizophrenia

Background: Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) of schizophrenia have been associated with structural and functional alterations of some brain regions. However, the brain regional homogeneity (ReHo) alterations specific to AVHs of schizophrenia remain unclear. In the current study, we aimed to investigate ReHo alterations specific to schizophrenic AVHs. Methods: Thirty-five schizophrenic patients with AVH, 41 schizophrenic patients without AVHs, and fifty healthy subjects underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. ReHo differences across the three groups were tested using a voxel-wise analysis. Results: Compared with the healthy control group, the two schizophrenia groups showed significantly increased ReHo in the right caudate and inferior temporal gyrus and decreased ReHo in the bilateral postcentral gyrus and thalamus and the right inferior occipital gyrus (false discovery rate corrected, P < 0.05). More importantly, the AVH group exhibited significantly increased ReHo in the left precuneus compared with the non-AVH group. However, using correlation analysis, we did not find any correlation between the auditory hallucination rating scale score and the ReHo of brain regions. Conclusions: Our results suggest that increased ReHo in the left precuneus may be a pathological feature exclusive to schizophrenic AVHs.