Department of Radiology, and Functional and Molecular Imaging key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Guoxuexiang 37#, Wuhou, Chengdu 610041, China.
Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Guoxuexiang 37#, Wuhou, Chengdu 610041, China.
Cereb Cortex. 2024 Oct 3;34(10). doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhae402.
Although aberrant static functional brain network activity has been reported in schizophrenia, little is known about how the dynamics of neural function are altered in first-episode schizophrenia and are modulated by antipsychotic treatment. The baseline resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired from 122 first-episode drug-naïve schizophrenia patients and 128 healthy controls (HCs), and 44 patients were rescanned after 1-year of antipsychotic treatment. Multilayer network analysis was applied to calculate the network switching rates between brain states. Compared to HCs, schizophrenia patients at baseline showed significantly increased network switching rates. This effect was observed mainly in the sensorimotor (SMN) and dorsal attention networks (DAN), and in temporal and parietal regions at the nodal level. Switching rates were reduced after 1-year of antipsychotic treatment at the global level and in DAN. Switching rates at baseline at the global level and in the inferior parietal lobule were correlated with the treatment-related reduction of negative symptoms. These findings suggest that instability of functional network activity plays an important role in the pathophysiology of acute psychosis in early-stage schizophrenia. The normalization of network stability after antipsychotic medication suggests that this effect may represent a systems-level mechanism for their therapeutic efficacy.
尽管在精神分裂症中已经报道了异常的静息态功能脑网络活动，但对于首发精神分裂症中神经功能的动态变化以及抗精神病药物治疗如何调节这些变化知之甚少。本研究从 122 名首发、未经药物治疗的精神分裂症患者和 128 名健康对照者（HCs）中获取了基线静息态功能磁共振成像数据，其中 44 名患者在抗精神病药物治疗 1 年后进行了重新扫描。采用多层网络分析计算脑状态之间的网络切换率。与 HCs 相比，精神分裂症患者在基线时表现出明显增加的网络切换率。这种效应主要在感觉运动网络（SMN）和背侧注意网络（DAN）以及颞叶和顶叶区域的节点水平观察到。在全球水平和 DAN 中，抗精神病药物治疗 1 年后，网络切换率降低。全球水平和下顶叶的基线切换率与抗精神病药物治疗后阴性症状的减少呈正相关。这些发现表明，功能网络活动的不稳定性在早期精神分裂症急性精神病的病理生理学中起着重要作用。抗精神病药物治疗后网络稳定性的正常化表明，这种效应可能代表其治疗效果的系统水平机制。
