Hinc Asli Ceren, Selek Simay, Sungur Ibrahim, Keskin Kaan, Yazici Furkan, Erata Mehmet Can, Erdogan Yigit, Yilmaz Alpaslan, Kitis Omer, Eker Mehmet Cagdas, Gonul Ali Saffet
Standardization of Computational Anatomy Techniques for Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences (SoCAT) Lab, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Ege University, Izmir, Türkiye.
Department of Psychiatry, Izmir City Hospital, Izmir, Türkiye.
Front Psychiatry. 2025 Jun 17;16:1600449. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1600449. eCollection 2025.
Neuronal plasticity, or the ability to change and adapt in response to experiences, learning, or environment, is frequently disrupted in schizophrenia and contributes to disease-associated cognitive deficits and functional impairments.
In this study, we investigated the neuroplasticity alterations of schizophrenia patients in the cortico-striato-cerebellar circuits associated with implicit learning using a reward-enhanced Serial Reaction Time Task (SRTT) by resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI). Forty-two schizophrenia patients and 25 healthy controls underwent pre- and post-task rs-fMRI to evaluate changes in functional connectivity.
Behavioral results indicated that all participants demonstrated shorter reaction times during sequential blocks, schizophrenia patients exhibited lower accuracy suggesting diminished implicit learning. Schizophrenia patients exhibited increased connectivity across cortico-striatocerebellar circuits, which became even more robust and widespread following task completion. Despite impaired performance, this post-task hyperconnectivity may reflect a compensatory mechanism attempting to recruit additional neural resources-albeit in a dysfunctional or inefficient manner. Data-driven analyses confirmed the post-task differences between groups, identifying task-induced connectivity changes in thalamo-cortico-cerebellar circuits as the strongest predictors of a group membership.
These findings underscore the role of neuroplasticity impairments in schizophrenia-related cognitive deficits, highlighting potential neural markers for clinical differentiation and paving the way for targeted interventions.
神经元可塑性，即响应经验、学习或环境而改变和适应的能力，在精神分裂症中经常受到破坏，并导致与疾病相关的认知缺陷和功能障碍。
在本研究中，我们使用奖励增强的序列反应时任务（SRTT），通过静息态功能磁共振成像（rs-fMRI），研究了与内隐学习相关的皮质-纹状体-小脑回路中精神分裂症患者的神经可塑性改变。42名精神分裂症患者和25名健康对照者在任务前后接受了rs-fMRI检查，以评估功能连接的变化。
行为结果表明，所有参与者在连续的组块中反应时间都缩短了，精神分裂症患者的准确率较低，表明内隐学习能力下降。精神分裂症患者在皮质-纹状体-小脑回路中的连接性增加，在任务完成后变得更加稳固和广泛。尽管表现受损，但这种任务后高连接性可能反映了一种补偿机制，试图招募额外的神经资源——尽管是以功能失调或低效的方式。数据驱动分析证实了组间任务后的差异，确定丘脑-皮质-小脑回路中任务诱导的连接变化是区分组别的最强预测因素。
这些发现强调了神经可塑性损伤在精神分裂症相关认知缺陷中的作用，突出了临床鉴别诊断的潜在神经标志物，并为靶向干预铺平了道路。
