Functional magnetic resonance imaging correlates of first-episode psychoses during attentional and memory task performance

Background. The nature of the alteration of the response to cognitive tasks in first-episode psychosis (FEP) still awaits clarification. We used Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE), an increasingly used method in evaluating normal and pathological brain function, to identify activation changes in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of FEP during attentional and memory tasks. Methods. We included 11 peer-reviewed fMRI studies assessing FEP patients vs. healthy controls (HCs) during performance of attentional and memory tasks. Results. Our database comprised 290 patients with FEP, matched with 316 HCs. Between-group analyses showed that HCs, compared to FEP patients, exhibited hyperactivation of the right middle frontal gyrus (BA 9), right inferior parietal lobule (BA 40), and right insula (BA 13) during attentional task performances, and hyperactivation of the left insula (BA 13) during memory task performances. Conclusions. Right frontal, parietal, and insular dysfunction during attentional task performance, and left insular dysfunction during memory task performance, are significant neural functional FEP correlates.