Year: 2021
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Contemporary models of psychosis suggest that a continuum of severity of psychotic symptoms exists, with subthreshold psychotic experiences (PEs) potentially reflecting some genetic and environmental risk factors shared with clinical psychosis. Thus, identifying abnormalities in brain activity that manifest across this continuum can shed new light on the pathophysiology of psychosis. Here, we investigated the moment-to-moment engagement of brain networks ("states") in individuals with schizophrenia (SCZ) and PEs and identified features of these states that are associated with psychosis-spectrum symptoms. Transient brain states were defined by clustering "single snapshots" of blood oxygen level-dependent images, based on spatial similarity of the images. We found that individuals with SCZ (n = 35) demonstrated reduced recruitment of three brain states compared to demographically matched healthy controls (n = 35). Of these three illness-related states, one specific state, involving primarily the visual and salience networks, also occurred at a lower rate in individuals with persistent PEs (n = 22), compared to demographically matched healthy youth (n = 22). Moreover, the occurrence rate of this marker brain state was negatively correlated with the severity of PEs (r = -0.26, p = 0.003, n = 130). In contrast, the spatial map of this state appeared to be unaffected in the SCZ or PE groups. Thus, reduced engagement of a brain state involving the visual and salience networks was demonstrated across the psychosis continuum, suggesting that early disruptions of perceptual and affective function may underlie some of the core symptoms of the illness.
Source: Molecular Psychiatry
Institutions: Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Tongji Hospital, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Yale University, Medical University of South Carolina, Capital Medical University, Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,480
Funders: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Foundation, Massachusetts General Hospital, National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Institutes of Health, National Key Research and Development Program of China, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Awards: G1305148004, G13812151, G1468570532, Neurocircuitry of OCD: Effects of Modulation, G1815453765, G1941922402, G2629005109, G3050928945, G3682045250, G3758364090, Neural mechanisms of social distance in psychosis, G4133541803, G4294148526, G4323492866, G4907134851, G491275355, Continuity of the Limbic Circuit Through the Basal Ganglia, COBRE in Stroke Recovery, G549037007, G5537418616, G558765102, G5750900722, Contributions of MTHFR Genotype to Frontal Lobe Dysfunction in Schizophrenia, G6621111668, G7261280670, G7292017534, G7355420342, Translating The Individualized Functional Connectome To Surgical Planning, G8304530626, Understanding Functional Connectivity Abnormalities In Individual Patients with Psychosis, G9000024085, G9000075791, G9000115037, G9000261405, G9000293884, G9000324874
OpenAlex ID: W3121577538