Li Mingli, Deng Wei, He Zongling, Wang Qiang, Huang Chaohua, Jiang Lijun, Gong Qiyong, Ziedonis Doug M, King Jean A, Ma Xiaohong, Zhang Nanyin, Li Tao
The Mental Health Center and the Psychiatric Laboratory, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China; State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
Huaxi MR Research Center, Department of Radiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
Psychiatry Res. 2015 May 30;232(2):145-53. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2015.03.001. Epub 2015 Mar 11.
Dysconnectivity between key brain systems has been hypothesized to underlie the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. The present study examined the pattern of functional dysconnectivity across whole-brain neural networks in 121 first-episode, treatment-naïve patients with schizophrenia by using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI). Group independent component analysis (ICA) was first applied to rsfMRI data to extract 90 functional components of the brain. The functional connectivity between these ICA components was then evaluated and compared between the patient and control groups. To examine the functional roles of significantly altered between-component connections in patients, each ICA component was ascribed to one of 10 previously well-defined brain networks/areas. Relative to findings in healthy controls (n=103), 29 altered functional connections including 19 connections with increased connectivity and 10 connections with decreased connectivity in schizophrenia patients were found. Increased connectivity was mainly within the default mode network (DMN) and between the DMN and cognitive networks, whereas decreased connectivity was predominantly associated with sensory networks. Given the key roles of the DMN in internal mental processes and sensory networks in inputs from the external environment, these patterns of altered brain network connectivity could suggest imbalanced neural processing of internal and external information in schizophrenia.
关键脑系统之间的功能失调被认为是精神分裂症病理生理学的基础。本研究通过静息态功能磁共振成像（rsfMRI），对121例首发、未接受过治疗的精神分裂症患者全脑神经网络的功能失调模式进行了研究。首先将组独立成分分析（ICA）应用于rsfMRI数据，以提取大脑的90个功能成分。然后评估并比较患者组和对照组之间这些ICA成分之间的功能连接。为了研究患者中成分间连接显著改变的功能作用，将每个ICA成分归为10个先前明确的脑网络/区域之一。与健康对照组（n = 103）的结果相比，发现精神分裂症患者有29个功能连接改变，包括19个连接增强和10个连接减弱。连接增强主要发生在默认模式网络（DMN）内以及DMN与认知网络之间，而连接减弱主要与感觉网络相关。鉴于DMN在内部心理过程中的关键作用以及感觉网络在外部环境输入中的作用，这些脑网络连接改变的模式可能表明精神分裂症患者在内部和外部信息的神经处理上存在失衡。
