Huaxi Magnetic Resonance Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
Department of Psychiatry, State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
Schizophr Res. 2019 Feb;204:230-237. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2018.08.005. Epub 2018 Aug 16.
Altered resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) has been demonstrated between multiple brain regions in schizophrenia. However, whether these alterations are related to fractional anisotropy (FA) alterations in pathways that connect regions with altered rsFC remains unknown. In this study, diffusion tensor imaging and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging were performed with 181 antipsychotic-naïve first-episode schizophrenia patients and 173 matched healthy controls. FA was measured using tensor-guided tractography in identifiable pathways between selected pairs of brain regions with altered rsFC as determined by prior meta-analysis. Compared with controls, patients showed significantly decreased FA between right caudate nucleus and right pallidum, right caudate nucleus and right putamen, and right hippocampus and right thalamus. Decreased rsFC was observed between right pallidum and right thalamus, and right insula and right superior temporal gyrus. No significant correlation was observed between FA and rsFC. FA between right caudate nucleus and right putamen was inversely correlated with negative symptoms while rsFC between right pallidum and right thalamus was inversely correlated with positive symptoms. The lack of robust correlations between FA and rsFC and no overlap of these abnormalities indicate that regional rsFC alterations in the early course of schizophrenia are not primarily associated with FA alterations. The observation that positive and negative symptoms are related to different functional and structural disturbances is consistent with this dissociation, and with prior work suggests that different pathophysiological mechanism may underlie positive and negative symptoms in the early course of schizophrenia.
精神分裂症患者多个脑区的静息态功能连接（rsFC）发生改变。然而，这些改变是否与连接这些改变 rsFC 的脑区的FA 改变有关尚不清楚。在这项研究中，对 181 名未经抗精神病药物治疗的首发精神分裂症患者和 173 名匹配的健康对照者进行了弥散张量成像和静息态功能磁共振成像检查。通过先前的荟萃分析确定的具有改变 rsFC 的脑区之间的可识别通路，使用张量引导的轨迹测量 FA。与对照组相比，患者右侧尾状核与右侧苍白球、右侧尾状核与右侧壳核以及右侧海马与右侧丘脑之间的 FA 明显降低。观察到右侧苍白球与右侧丘脑以及右侧岛叶与右侧颞上回之间的 rsFC 降低。FA 与 rsFC 之间未观察到显著相关性。右侧尾状核与右侧壳核之间的 FA 与阴性症状呈负相关，而右侧苍白球与右侧丘脑之间的 rsFC 与阳性症状呈负相关。FA 与 rsFC 之间缺乏强相关性以及这些异常之间无重叠表明，精神分裂症早期 rsFC 的改变主要与 FA 改变无关。阳性和阴性症状与不同的功能和结构紊乱相关的观察结果与这种分离一致，并且与先前的工作表明，不同的病理生理机制可能是精神分裂症早期阳性和阴性症状的基础。
