Using short-range and long-range functional connectivity to identify schizophrenia with a family-based case-control...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Abnormal functional connectivity (FC) is a key feature in schizophrenia neurophysiology.
• Differentiating schizophrenia patients from controls using FC requires robust methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the utility of short-range and long-range FC for discriminating schizophrenia patients from family-based and healthy controls.
• To identify specific FC patterns associated with schizophrenia.

Main Methods:

• Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used in first-episode, drug-naive patients (n=28), unaffected siblings (n=28), and healthy controls (n=40).
• Analyses included short-range and long-range FC, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, and support vector machine (SVM).

Main Results:

• Patients exhibited increased short-range positive FC strength (spFCS) and long-range positive FC strength (lpFCS) in the default-mode network (DMN).
• Decreased spFCS and lpFCS were observed in sensorimotor circuits in patients compared to controls.
• A combination of spFCS and lpFCS values accurately differentiated patients from family-based controls.

Conclusions:

• The default-mode network and sensorimotor circuits are crucial in schizophrenia pathogenesis.
• Family-based case-control designs can mitigate environmental confounding factors in neuroimaging studies of schizophrenia.
• Specific FC alterations offer potential biomarkers for schizophrenia.