Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213.
eNeuro. 2021 Mar 18;8(2). doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0375-20.2021. Print 2021 Mar-Apr.
Animal models suggest that interactions between the hippocampus and ventral tegmental area (VTA) underlie the onset and etiology of psychosis. While a large body of research has separately characterized alterations in hippocampal and VTA function in psychosis, alterations across the VTA and hippocampus have not been characterized in first-episode psychosis (FEP). As the phase of psychosis most proximal to conversion, studies specifically focused on FEP are valuable to psychosis research. Here, we characterize alterations in VTA-hippocampal interactions across male and female human participants experiencing their first episode of psychosis using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI). In comparison to age and sex matched healthy controls (HCs), FEP individuals had significantly greater VTA-hippocampal functional coupling but significantly less VTA-striatal functional coupling. Further, increased VTA-hippocampal functional coupling in FEP correlated with individual differences in psychosis-related symptoms. Together, these findings demonstrate alterations in mesolimbic-hippocampal circuits in FEP and extend prominent animal models of psychosis.
动物模型表明，海马体和腹侧被盖区（VTA）之间的相互作用是精神病发作和病因的基础。虽然大量研究分别描述了精神病中海马体和 VTA 功能的改变，但在首发精神病（FEP）中尚未描述 VTA 和海马体的改变。由于精神病的阶段与转化最接近，因此专门针对 FEP 的研究对精神病研究具有重要价值。在这里，我们使用静息态功能磁共振成像（rsfMRI）来描述经历首次精神病发作的男性和女性人类参与者的 VTA-海马体相互作用的改变。与年龄和性别匹配的健康对照组（HCs）相比，FEP 个体的 VTA-海马体功能耦合显著增加，但 VTA-纹状体功能耦合显著减少。此外，FEP 中 VTA-海马体功能耦合的增加与精神病相关症状的个体差异相关。总之，这些发现表明 FEP 中边缘-海马回路的改变，并扩展了突出的精神病动物模型。
