Frequency-specific alteration of functional connectivity density in antipsychotic-naive adolescents with early-onset schizophrenia
Section snippets
Introductions
Schizophrenia is a devastating disease characterized in part by altered connectivity in brain function (Epstein et al., 2014, Kyriakopoulos et al., 2012). A large but variable body of studies found functional connectivity (FC) deficits in adult-onset schizophrenia (Garrity et al., 2007, Lynall et al., 2010). Adolescents with early-onset schizophrenia (EOS) provides a unique opportunity to explore the FC alterations as they are less affected by chronic antipsychotic medication and interaction
Participants
A total of 39 EOS patients were recruited from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University. All patients were independently diagnosed by research psychiatrists and satisfied the following criteria: (1) DSM-IV-TR criteria for schizophrenia (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition, text revision, American Psychiatric Association, 2000), (2) no co-morbid Axis I diagnosis, (3) duration of illness less than two years, and (4) antipsychotic naive.
Demographic characteristics and clinical symptoms
No significant differences were found in gender, age, and years of education between the patients and HCs. For the patient group, the mean duration of illness was 16.0 months (SD = 14.4) (Table 1).
Main effect of frequency band factor
Brain regions showed a significant main effect of bands in the right lingual gyrus (), left posterior cingulate gyrus (), medial prefrontal cortex, orbital part (), right angular gyrus (), left inferior temporal gyrus , right
Discussion
In this study, we used the FCD method to investigate the changes in the FC pattern in EOS patients at two frequency bands (slow-4 and slow-5). Several brain regions exhibited significant differences in the FCD between the two bands and the two groups. Moreover, a significant frequency-by-group interaction effect was observed in the left precuneus. In addition, decreased FC between the left precuneus and other regions in the slow-4 band was found. Furthermore, in the slow-4 band, the FCD in the
Limitation
The limitations of the current study should be considered. The size of our sample was relatively small. However, it is comparable with other recent studies that examined drug-naive EOS patients. A larger sample size is necessary to confirm the results of the current study.
Conclusion
In this study, we investigated the changes in FC within the brains of EOS patients at specific frequency bands. Many brain areas showed significant differences in specific frequency bands. Furthermore, in EOS patients brain areas with abnormal FC were widespread and mainly associated with audiovisual information processing, sensorimotor system, and social cognition. Moreover, the FC in the precuneus was significantly band-limited, and the changes in the slow-4 band were associated with the
Contributors
Yan Zhang and Mi Yang designed the study and conceptualized the protocol for healthy subjects. Jingping Zhao and Huafu Chen adapted this protocol for schizophrenia patients and evaluated them. Junjie Zheng, Zhiliang Long and Shaoqiang Han managed the literature searches and analyses. Xiao Wang, Youxue Zhang, Yifeng Wang and Xunjun Duan undertook the statistical analyses, and Xiao Wang wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.
Conflict of interest
The authors have declared that there are no conflicts of interest in relation to the subject of this study.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the 863 project (2015AA020505), the Natural Science Foundation of China (61533006 and 61673089), the project of the Science and Technology Department in Sichuan province (2017JY0094), and the Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities (ZYGX2016KYQD120 and ZYGX2015J141).
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