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Effects of olanzapine during cognitive and emotional processing in schizophrenia: A review of functional magnetic resonance imaging findings
Author(s) -
Del Fabro Lorenzo,
Delvecchio Giuseppe,
D'Agostino Armando,
Brambilla Paolo
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
human psychopharmacology: clinical and experimental
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.461
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1099-1077
pISSN - 0885-6222
DOI - 10.1002/hup.2693
Subject(s) - olanzapine , functional magnetic resonance imaging , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , psychology , cognition , neuroscience , cingulate cortex , anterior cingulate cortex , brain activity and meditation , psychosis , neuroimaging , striatum , dopamine , psychiatry , electroencephalography , central nervous system
Abstract Objective Olanzapine is an atypical antipsychotic that is widely used in the treatment of schizophrenia and has shown some degree of efficacy on negative and cognitive symptoms. We aimed to review the effects of olanzapine treatment on brain regions that are directly involved in cognitive and emotional processing. Methods We used the PubMed database to perform a bibliographic search on functional magnetic resonance imaging studies that investigated the effects of olanzapine treatment on neural activity in patients with schizophrenia during cognitive and emotional tasks. Results Despite the high variability of tasks and analysis methods employed, the weight of the evidence was consistent with the hypothesis that olanzapine treatment is associated with a normalization of brain activity in schizophrenia. Distinctive functional changes were found in frontal cortex and cingulate cortex activity during both cognitive and emotional tasks. During emotional processing, olanzapine treatment seems to specifically regulate the activity of the striatum and limbic system. Conclusions The results of the reviewed studies suggest that in patients with schizophrenia, olanzapine treatment might lead to a more physiological brain activity coupled with regulation of dopamine release. Future studies should further corroborate these hypotheses using larger samples and homogeneous experimental tasks.