Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China.
Department of Psychiatry Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory, Tianjin Mental Health Center, Tianjin Anding Hospital, Tianjin, China.
Schizophr Bull. 2017 Oct 21;43(6):1363-1374. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbx051.
Respective changes in resting-state cerebral blood flow (CBF) and functional connectivity in schizophrenia have been reported. However, their coupling alterations in schizophrenia remain largely unknown.
89 schizophrenia patients and 90 sex- and age-matched healthy controls underwent resting-state functional MRI to calculate functional connectivity strength (FCS) and arterial spin labeling imaging to compute CBF. The CBF-FCS coupling of the whole gray matter and the CBF/FCS ratio (the amount of blood supply per unit of connectivity strength) of each voxel were compared between the 2 groups.
Whole gray matter CBF-FCS coupling was decreased in schizophrenia patients relative to healthy controls. In schizophrenia patients, the decreased CBF/FCS ratio was predominantly located in cognitive- and emotional-related brain regions, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, insula, hippocampus and thalamus, whereas an increased CBF/FCS ratio was mainly identified in the sensorimotor regions, including the putamen, and sensorimotor, mid-cingulate and visual cortices.
These findings suggest that the neurovascular decoupling in the brain may be a possible neuropathological mechanism of schizophrenia.
已有研究报道精神分裂症患者静息态脑血流（CBF）和功能连接存在相应变化。然而，精神分裂症患者的神经血管耦联改变仍知之甚少。
89 例精神分裂症患者和 90 例性别和年龄匹配的健康对照者接受静息态功能磁共振成像以计算功能连接强度（FCS）和动脉自旋标记成像以计算 CBF。比较两组患者全脑灰质的 CBF-FCS 耦联和每个体素的 CBF/FCS 比值（单位连接强度的血液供应量）。
与健康对照组相比，精神分裂症患者全脑灰质 CBF-FCS 耦联降低。在精神分裂症患者中，降低的 CBF/FCS 比值主要位于认知和情绪相关的脑区，包括背外侧前额叶皮层、岛叶、海马体和丘脑，而增加的 CBF/FCS 比值主要位于感觉运动区，包括壳核以及感觉运动、中扣带回和视觉皮层。
这些发现表明，大脑中的神经血管解耦可能是精神分裂症的一种潜在神经病理学机制。
