Increased coherence-based regional homogeneity in resting-state patients with first-episode, drug-naive somatization...

Abnormal neural activity has been observed in patients with somatization disorder (SD), especially in brain regions of the default-mode network (DMN). In this study, a coherence-based regional homogeneity (Cohe-ReHo) approach was used to detect abnormal regional synchronization in patients with SD, which might be used to differentiate the patients from the controls.

We recruited 25 patients with SD and 28 healthy controls. The imaging data of the participants were analyzed using the Cohe-ReHo approach. LIBSVM (a library for support vector machines) was utilized to verify whether abnormal Cohe-ReHo values could be applied to separate patients with SD from healthy controls.

Compared with healthy controls, patients with SD showed an increased Cohe-ReHo in the left medial prefrontal cortex/anterior cingulate cortex (MPFC/ACC) (t = 5.5017, p < 0.001). No correlations were detected between the increased Cohe-ReHo values and clinical variables of the patients. The Cohe-ReHo values in the left MPFC/ACC could be applied to distinguish patients from controls with a sensitivity and a specificity of 84.00% and 85.71%, respectively.

An increased Cohe-ReHo was observed in the anterior DMN of the patients and could be applied as a marker to distinguish patients from healthy controls. These results highlighted the importance of the DMN in the pathophysiology of SD.