Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics (Ministry of Education), Affiliated Mental Health Center (ECNU), Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
Transl Psychiatry. 2023 Jun 21;13(1):214. doi: 10.1038/s41398-023-02520-4.
Schizophrenia is characterized by dysconnectivity syndrome. Evidence of widespread impairment of structural and functional integration has been demonstrated in schizophrenia. Although white matter (WM) microstructural abnormalities have been commonly reported in schizophrenia, the dysfunction of WM as well as the relationship between structure and function in WM remains uncertain. In this study, we proposed a novel structure-function coupling measurement to reflect neuronal information transfer, which combined spatial-temporal correlations of functional signals with diffusion tensor orientations in the WM circuit from functional and diffusion magnetic resonance images (MRI). By analyzing MRI data from 75 individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) and 89 healthy volunteers (HV), the associations between structure and function in WM regions in schizophrenia were examined. Randomized validation of the measurement was performed in the HV group to confirm the capacity of the neural signal transferring along the WM tracts, referring to quantifying the association between structure and function. Compared to HV, SZ showed a widespread decrease in the structure-function coupling within WM regions, involving the corticospinal tract and the superior longitudinal fasciculus. Additionally, the structure-function coupling in the WM tracts was found to be significantly correlated with psychotic symptoms and illness duration in schizophrenia, suggesting that abnormal signal transfer of neuronal fiber pathways could be a potential mechanism of the neuropathology of schizophrenia. This work supports the dysconnectivity hypothesis of schizophrenia from the aspect of circuit function, and highlights the critical role of WM networks in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.
精神分裂症的特征是连接失调综合征。已有证据表明，精神分裂症存在广泛的结构和功能整合损伤。尽管已有研究普遍报道了精神分裂症患者的白质（WM）微观结构异常，但 WM 的功能障碍以及 WM 结构与功能之间的关系仍不确定。在这项研究中，我们提出了一种新的结构-功能耦合测量方法，以反映神经元信息传递，该方法结合了功能磁共振成像（fMRI）和扩散张量成像（DTI）中 WM 回路的功能信号的时空相关性与扩散张量方向。通过分析来自 75 名精神分裂症患者（SZ）和 89 名健康志愿者（HV）的 MRI 数据，研究了 WM 区域中精神分裂症的结构和功能之间的关联。在 HV 组中对该测量方法进行了随机验证，以确认沿 WM 束定量测量神经元信号传输能力，即结构和功能之间的关联。与 HV 相比，SZ 表现出 WM 区域内广泛的结构-功能耦合降低，涉及皮质脊髓束和上纵束。此外，WM 束中的结构-功能耦合与精神分裂症中的精神病症状和病程显著相关，表明神经元纤维通路的异常信号传递可能是精神分裂症神经病理学的潜在机制。这项工作从回路功能方面支持了精神分裂症的连接失调假说，并强调了 WM 网络在精神分裂症病理生理学中的关键作用。
