The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Lab for NeuroInformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
School of life Science and technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
Transl Psychiatry. 2020 Nov 2;10(1):368. doi: 10.1038/s41398-020-01049-0.
Cognitive impairment is viewed as a core symptom of schizophrenia (SCZ), but its pathophysiological mechanism remains unclear. White matter (WM) disruption is considered to be a central abnormality that may contribute to cognitive impairment in SCZ patients. However, few studies have addressed the association between cognition and WM integrity in never-treated first-episode (NTFE) patients with SCZ. In this study, we used the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) to evaluate cognitive function in NTFE patients (n = 39) and healthy controls (n = 30), and associated it with whole-brain fractional anisotropy (FA) values obtained via voxel-based diffusion tensor imaging. We found that FA was lower in five brain areas of SCZ patients, including the cingulate gyrus, internal capsule, corpus callosum, cerebellum, and brainstem. Compared with the healthy control group, the MCCB's total score and 8 out of 10 subscores were significantly lower in NTFE patients (all p < 0.001). Moreover, in patients but not healthy controls, the performance in the Trail Making Test was negatively correlated with the FA value in the left cingulate. Our findings provide evidence that WM disconnection is involved in some cognitive impairment in the early course of SCZ.
认知障碍被视为精神分裂症（SCZ）的核心症状，但其病理生理机制仍不清楚。 人们认为，脑白质（WM）破坏是一种中枢异常，可能导致 SCZ 患者的认知障碍。 然而，很少有研究探讨未经治疗的首发精神分裂症（NTFE）患者认知功能与 WM 完整性之间的关系。 在这项研究中，我们使用 MATRICS 共识认知电池（MCCB）评估了 39 名 NTFE 患者和 30 名健康对照者的认知功能，并将其与基于体素的扩散张量成像获得的全脑分数各向异性（FA）值相关联。 我们发现，SCZ 患者的五个脑区（扣带回、内囊、胼胝体、小脑和脑干）的 FA 值较低。 与健康对照组相比，NTFE 患者的 MCCB 总分和 10 项子项中的 8 项明显较低（均 p<0.001）。 此外，在患者中而不是在健康对照组中，连线测试的表现与左侧扣带回的 FA 值呈负相关。 我们的研究结果提供了证据表明，WM 断开与 SCZ 早期认知障碍的某些方面有关。
