Giordano Giulia M, Pezzella Pasquale, Quarantelli Mario, Bucci Paola, Prinster Anna, Soricelli Andrea, Perrottelli Andrea, Giuliani Luigi, Fabrazzo Michele, Galderisi Silvana
Department of Psychiatry, University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", 80138 Naples, Italy.
Biostructure and Bioimaging Institute, National Research Council, 80134 Naples, Italy.
J Clin Med. 2021 Dec 23;11(1):61. doi: 10.3390/jcm11010061.
Deficit schizophrenia is a subtype of schizophrenia presenting primary and enduring negative symptoms (NS). Although one of the most updated hypotheses indicates a relationship between NS and impaired motivation, only a few studies have investigated abnormalities of motivational circuits in subjects with deficit schizophrenia (DS). Our aim was to investigate structural connectivity within motivational circuits in DS. We analyzed diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data from 46 subjects with schizophrenia (SCZ) and 35 healthy controls (HCs). SCZ were classified as DS ( = 9) and non-deficit (NDS) ( = 37) using the Schedule for Deficit Syndrome. The connectivity index (CI) and the Fractional Anisotropy (FA) of the connections between selected brain areas involved in motivational circuits were examined. DS, as compared with NDS and HCs, showed increased CI between the right amygdala and dorsal anterior insular cortex and increased FA of the pathway connecting the left nucleus accumbens with the posterior insular cortex. Our results support previous evidence of distinct neurobiological alterations underlying different clinical subtypes of schizophrenia. DS, as compared with NDS and HCs, may present an altered pruning process (consistent with the hyperconnectivity) in cerebral regions involved in updating the stimulus value to guide goal-directed behavior.
缺损型精神分裂症是精神分裂症的一种亚型，主要表现为原发性和持续性阴性症状（NS）。尽管最新的一种假说表明阴性症状与动机受损之间存在关联，但仅有少数研究调查了缺损型精神分裂症（DS）患者动机回路的异常情况。我们的目的是研究DS患者动机回路内的结构连通性。我们分析了46例精神分裂症患者（SCZ）和35名健康对照者（HCs）的扩散张量成像（DTI）数据。使用缺损综合征量表将SCZ分为DS组（n = 9）和非缺损组（NDS）（n = 37）。检测了参与动机回路的选定脑区之间连接的连通性指数（CI）和分数各向异性（FA）。与NDS组和HCs组相比，DS组右侧杏仁核与背侧前岛叶皮质之间的CI增加，左侧伏隔核与后岛叶皮质之间连接通路的FA增加。我们的结果支持了先前关于精神分裂症不同临床亚型存在不同神经生物学改变的证据。与NDS组和HCs组相比，DS组可能在参与更新刺激值以指导目标导向行为的脑区出现修剪过程改变（与高连通性一致）。
