Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: ABSTRACT Background and Hypothesis Although psychotic disorders are characterized by widespread cortical thinning, translating these findings into individualized biomarkers remains challenging. Regional Vulnerability Index (RVI) and Neuroscore are candidate individual-level biomarkers that quantify the similarity between an individual’s structural brain pattern and generic psychosis-associated alterations. This study investigated cortical thickness (CT)-based RVI and Neuroscore, along with mean CT deviation from healthy individuals, across the psychosis spectrum. Study Design Using structural 3T MRI data from 289 participants (clinical high risk for psychosis [CHR], n=39; first episode psychosis [FEP], n=44, chronic psychosis [CP], n=86; healthy controls [HC], n=120), RVI, Neuroscore, and mean CT deviation (z) scores were computed from region-wise CT measures quantified using FreeSurfer v7.2. Group differences and associations with symptoms were evaluated. Study Results RVI and Neuroscore were significantly higher, and mean CT z-scores lower, in FEP and CP compared with CHR and HC, with moderate-to-large effect sizes (|Cohen’s d| = 0.55–1.15). No differences were observed between FEP and CP or CHR and HC. Indices were not associated with psychosis-spectrum symptom severity in the CHR, FEP, or CP groups. RVI ( r = −0.561, p < .001) and Neuroscore ( r = −0.997, p < .001) were strongly negatively correlated with the mean CT z-score. Conclusions CT-based RVI and Neuroscore appear to index established disease status but not risk status, while showing substantial overlap with mean CT deviation. These findings highlight the need to further refine these biomarkers through data-driven and multimodal approaches to improve their utility for risk and prognostic prediction.
Source: medRxiv
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: Cerebro-cerebellar circuitry in the pathophysiology of auditory hallucinations: dysmetria of auditory perceptual processing?, G3431876078, Molecular Mechanisms and Biomarkers for Disease Progression from Prodrome to Early Psychosis, Excitation-inhibition imbalance, posteromedial cortical dysconnectivity, and thought disorder in first-episode psychosis, Neuroprogression across the Psychosis Spectrum in the Early Course of Illness, Energy Metabolism Markers of Cognitive Function in Early Psychosis and Risk, Shared and differential vulnerabilities of stress and reward processing in psychosis-risk syndromes or early-stage depression, Stuart T. Hauser Research Training Program in Biological and Social Psychiatry, Molecular Mechanisms of Aging in Schizophrenia: Implications of Bioenergetic Metabolism and Redox Biology, Laboratory for Early Psychosis Research (LEAP)
OpenAlex ID: W7223047119