The psychosis human connectome project: Design and rationale for studies of visual neurophysiology
Michael-Paul Schallmo,
Kimberly B. Weldon,
Rohit S. Kamath,
Hannah R. Moser,
Samantha A. Montoya,
Kyle W. Killebrew,
Caroline Demro,
Andrea N. Grant,
Małgorzata Marjańska,
Scott R. Sponheim,
Cheryl A. Olman
Affiliations
Michael-Paul Schallmo
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA; Corresponding author.
Kimberly B. Weldon
Department of Radiology, Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Rohit S. Kamath
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Hannah R. Moser
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Samantha A. Montoya
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Kyle W. Killebrew
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Caroline Demro
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Andrea N. Grant
Department of Radiology, Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Małgorzata Marjańska
Department of Radiology, Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Scott R. Sponheim
Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Cheryl A. Olman
Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA; Department of Radiology, Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Visual perception is abnormal in psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. In addition to hallucinations, laboratory tests show differences in fundamental visual processes including contrast sensitivity, center-surround interactions, and perceptual organization. A number of hypotheses have been proposed to explain visual dysfunction in psychotic disorders, including an imbalance between excitation and inhibition. However, the precise neural basis of abnormal visual perception in people with psychotic psychopathology (PwPP) remains unknown. Here, we describe the behavioral and 7 tesla MRI methods we used to interrogate visual neurophysiology in PwPP as part of the Psychosis Human Connectome Project (HCP). In addition to PwPP (n = 66) and healthy controls (n = 43), we also recruited first-degree biological relatives (n = 44) in order to examine the role of genetic liability for psychosis in visual perception. Our visual tasks were designed to assess fundamental visual processes in PwPP, whereas MR spectroscopy enabled us to examine neurochemistry, including excitatory and inhibitory markers. We show that it is feasible to collect high-quality data across multiple psychophysical, functional MRI, and MR spectroscopy experiments with a sizable number of participants at a single research site. These data, in addition to those from our previously described 3 tesla experiments, will be made publicly available in order to facilitate further investigations by other research groups. By combining visual neuroscience techniques and HCP brain imaging methods, our experiments offer new opportunities to investigate the neural basis of abnormal visual perception in PwPP.
