Department of Psychiatry, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Verdun, Quebec, Canada.
McGill Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Hippocampus. 2020 Oct;30(10):1058-1072. doi: 10.1002/hipo.23215. Epub 2020 Jun 2.
Hippocampal circuitry has been posited to be fundamental to positive symptoms in psychosis, but its contributions to other factors important for outcome remains unclear. We hypothesized that longitudinal changes in the hippocampal circuit and concomitant changes of intracortical microstructure are altered in first episode psychosis (FEP) patients and that such changes are associated with negative symptoms and verbal memory. Longitudinal brain scans (2-4 visits over 3-15 months) were acquired for 27 FEP and 29 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Quantitative T1 maps, sensitive to myelin content, were used to sample the microstructure of the hippocampal subfields and output circuitry (fimbria, alveus, fornix, mammillary bodies), and intracortical regions. Dynamic anatomical covariance in pair-wise regional trajectories were assessed for each subject, and graph theory was used to calculate a participation coefficient metric that quantifies the similarity/divergence between hippocampal and intracortical microstructure. The mean participation coefficient of the hippocampus was significantly reduced in FEP patients compared with controls, reflecting differences in output hippocampal regions. Importantly, lower participation coefficient of the hippocampal circuit was associated with worse negative symptoms, a relationship that was mediated by changes in verbal memory. This study provides evidence for reduced hippocampal centrality in FEP and concomitant changes in intracortical anatomy. Myelin-rich output regions of the hippocampus may be an important biological trigger in early psychosis, with cascading effects on broader cortical networks and resultant clinical profiles.
海马体回路被认为是精神病阳性症状的基础,但它对其他对结果很重要的因素的贡献仍不清楚。我们假设,首发精神病(FEP)患者的海马体回路的纵向变化及其伴随的皮质内微观结构的变化是改变的,并且这种变化与阴性症状和言语记忆有关。对 27 名 FEP 患者和 29 名年龄和性别匹配的健康对照组进行了纵向脑扫描(3-15 个月内进行 2-4 次访问)。定量 T1 图谱对髓鞘含量敏感,用于采样海马体亚区和输出回路(伞状袢、齿状回、穹窿、乳头体)以及皮质内区域的微观结构。对每个受试者的成对区域轨迹的动态解剖协方差进行了评估,并使用图论计算了一个参与系数指标,该指标量化了海马体和皮质内微观结构之间的相似性/差异。与对照组相比,FEP 患者的海马体的平均参与系数显著降低,反映了输出海马体区域的差异。重要的是,海马体回路的低参与系数与更严重的阴性症状有关,这种关系受到言语记忆变化的介导。这项研究为 FEP 中降低的海马体中心性和皮质内解剖结构的伴随变化提供了证据。富含髓鞘的海马体输出区域可能是早期精神病的一个重要生物学触发因素,对更广泛的皮质网络产生级联效应,并产生相应的临床特征。