The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, The Key Laboratory of Mental Disorder's Management of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging. 2021 Sep 30;315:111330. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2021.111330. Epub 2021 Jul 3.
This study aimed to investigate the alterations of causal connectivity between the brain regions in Adolescent-onset schizophrenia (AOS) patients. Thirty-two first-episode drug-naïve AOS patients and 27 healthy controls (HC) were recruited for resting-state functional MRI scanning. The brain region with the between-group difference in regional homogeneity (ReHo) values was chosen as a seed to perform the Granger causality analysis (GCA) and further detect the alterations of causal connectivity in AOS. AOS patients exhibited increased ReHo values in left superior temporal gyrus (STG) compared with HCs. Significantly decreased values of outgoing Granger causality from left STG to right superior frontal gyrus and right angular gyrus were observed in GC mapping for AOS. Significantly stronger causal outflow from left STG to right insula and stronger causal inflow from right middle occipital gyrus (MOG) to left STG were also observed in AOS patients. Based on assessments of the two strengthened causal connectivity of the left STG with insula and MOG, a discriminant model could identify all patients from controls with 94.9% accuracy. This study indicated that alterations of directional connections in left STG may play an important role in the pathogenesis of AOS and serve as potential biomarkers for the disease.
本研究旨在探讨青少年发病型精神分裂症（AOS）患者脑区间因果连通性的改变。招募了 32 名首次发作且未经药物治疗的 AOS 患者和 27 名健康对照者（HC）进行静息态功能磁共振扫描。选择脑区局部一致性（ReHo）值存在组间差异的脑区作为种子点，进行 Granger 因果分析（GCA），进一步检测 AOS 中因果连通性的改变。与 HC 相比，AOS 患者左侧颞上回（STG）的 ReHo 值升高。在 AOS 的 GC 映射中，观察到左侧 STG 到右侧额上回和右侧角回的输出性 Granger 因果关系值显著降低。还观察到 AOS 患者左侧 STG 到右侧岛叶和右侧中枕叶（MOG）的因果流出更强，以及右侧 MOG 到左侧 STG 的因果流入更强。基于对左侧 STG 与岛叶和 MOG 的两个增强因果连通性的评估，一个判别模型可以以 94.9%的准确率识别所有患者与对照组。本研究表明，左侧 STG 中定向连接的改变可能在 AOS 的发病机制中起重要作用，并可作为该疾病的潜在生物标志物。
