The Study Of Default-mode Network And Its Correlations With Cognitive Deficits In Drug-naive First-episode Adolescent-onset Schizophrenia

BackgroundSchizophrenia is a common and serious mental illness.Psychiatric symptoms are very complex and seriously affect the social and occupational functions of patients,resulting in a huge global medical burden.Aberrant resting-state connectivity in default mode network(DMN)may be one of the pathophysiological features of schizophrenia.However,little is known about the homogeneity of this network in adolescent-onset schizophrenia(AOS)which account for 12% to 33% of all schizophrenics.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to explore functional connectivity(FC)in the DMN in patients with AOS at rest and correlations between abnormal brain function connectivity and cognitive function using network homogeneity(NH)approach.MethodsThe original data of resonance imaging scans came from 49 patients with AOS and 32 healthy controls who were matched for the patients' demographic characteristics.An automated NH approach was used to analyze the data.The sensitivity and specificity of the results were analyzed using the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis(ROC).MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery and Stroop color-word test were used to measure the cognitive function of the subjects.Pearson correlation coefficient was used to test whether there was a correlation between abnormal brain function connectivity and cognitive function.Results1.Compared to the controls,the patients showed higher NH values in the left medial prefrontal cortex(mPFC)(peak voxel: x=-3,y=39,z=51,number of voxels=58,T=5.4704),but lower NH values in the bilateral posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus(PCC/PCu)(right,peak voxel: x = 18,y =-54,z = 12,number of voxels = 89,T =-4.6335;left,peak voxel: x =-12,y =-72,z = 18,number of voxels = 55,T =-4.1123).Receiver operating characteristic curves analysis showed that the NH values of left superior mPFC can be a more valuable feature to distinguish patients from healthy controls.2.In the patient group,the abnormal NH value of left PCC/PCu was positively correlated with the maze(r = 0.333,P = 0.021)and Stroop color-word tests(r = 0.292,P = 0.044).ConclusionThere are abnormal network homogeneities in the default mode network of AOS,which may be involved in the regulation of cognitive function in certain brain regions.Our findings showed abnormal NH in the DMN of patients with AOS,suggesting that measuring NH values in patients with AOS may improve comprehension of the nature of schizophrenia.