1. Posterior Cerebellar Resting-State Functional Hypoconnectivity: A Neural Marker of Schizophrenia Across Different Stages of Treatment Response.
- Author
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Mehta UM, Ithal D, Roy N, Shekhar S, Govindaraj R, Ramachandraiah CT, Bolo NR, Bharath RD, Thirthalli J, Venkatasubramanian G, Gangadhar BN, and Keshavan MS
- Subjects
- Humans, Male, Female, Adult, Cross-Sectional Studies, Case-Control Studies, Young Adult, Clozapine pharmacology, Clozapine therapeutic use, Risperidone pharmacology, Risperidone administration & dosage, Risperidone therapeutic use, Neural Pathways physiopathology, Neural Pathways diagnostic imaging, Rest, Treatment Outcome, Schizophrenia drug therapy, Schizophrenia physiopathology, Schizophrenia diagnostic imaging, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cerebellum diagnostic imaging, Cerebellum physiopathology, Cerebellum drug effects, Antipsychotic Agents administration & dosage, Antipsychotic Agents pharmacology, Antipsychotic Agents therapeutic use
- Abstract
Background: Identifying stable and consistent resting-state functional connectivity patterns across illness trajectories has the potential to be considered fundamental to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. We aimed to identify consistent resting-state functional connectivity patterns across heterogeneous schizophrenia groups defined based on treatment response., Methods: In phase 1, we used a cross-sectional case-control design to characterize and compare stable independent component networks from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans of antipsychotic-naïve participants with first-episode schizophrenia (n = 54) and healthy participants (n = 43); we also examined associations with symptoms, cognition, and disability. In phase 2, we examined the stability (and replicability) of our phase 1 results in 4 groups (N = 105) representing a cross-sequential gradation of schizophrenia based on treatment response: risperidone responders, clozapine responders, clozapine nonresponders, and clozapine nonresponders following electroconvulsive therapy. Hypothesis-free whole-brain within- and between-network connectivity were examined., Results: Phase 1 identified posterior and anterior cerebellar hypoconnectivity and limbic hyperconnectivity in schizophrenia at a familywise error rate-corrected cluster significance threshold of p < .01. These network aberrations had unique associations with positive symptoms, cognition, and disability. During phase 2, we replicated the phase 1 results while comparing each of the 4 schizophrenia groups to the healthy participants. The participants in 2 longitudinal subdatasets did not demonstrate a significant change in these network aberrations following risperidone or electroconvulsive therapy. Posterior cerebellar hypoconnectivity (with thalamus and cingulate) emerged as the most consistent finding; it was replicated across different stages of treatment response (Cohen's d range -0.95 to -1.44), reproduced using different preprocessing techniques, and not confounded by educational attainment., Conclusions: Posterior cerebellar-thalamo-cingulate hypoconnectivity is a consistent and stable state-independent neural marker of schizophrenia., (Copyright © 2024 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2024
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