Reduced intrinsic neural timescales in schizophrenia along posterior parietal and occipital areas

We computed intrinsic neural timescales (INT) based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) data of healthy controls (HC) and patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SZ) from three independently collected samples. Five clusters showed decreased INT in SZ compared to HC in all three samples: right occipital fusiform gyrus (rOFG), left superior occipital gyrus (lSOG), right superior occipital gyrus (rSOG), left lateral occipital cortex (lLOC) and right postcentral gyrus (rPG). In other words, it appears that sensory information in visual and posterior parietal areas is stored for reduced lengths of time in SZ compared to HC. Finally, we found that symptom severity appears to modulate INT of these areas in SZ.