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A neuroimaging biomarker for striatal dysfunction in schizophrenia.
Ang Li1,2,3, Andrew Zalesky4,5, Weihua Yue6,7
1Brainnetome Center and National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Nature Medicine
|April 7, 2020
Summary
Researchers developed a novel biomarker, functional striatal abnormalities (FSA), to identify schizophrenia. This neuroimaging tool accurately distinguishes patients from controls and predicts antipsychotic treatment response.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Medical Imaging
Background:
- Striatal dysfunction is a key feature in schizophrenia.
- Existing diagnostic methods lack precision for identification, prognosis, and subtyping.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a novel neuroimaging biomarker for schizophrenia based on functional striatal abnormalities (FSA).
- To assess FSA's utility in diagnosis, prognosis, subtyping, and predicting treatment response.
Main Methods:
- Hypothesis-driven neuroimaging biomarker development based on functional striatal abnormalities (FSA).
- Inter-site cross-validation using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from 1,100 individuals across seven scanners.
- Longitudinal assessment of FSA scores in relation to antipsychotic treatment response.
Main Results:
- FSA distinguished schizophrenia patients from healthy controls with >80% accuracy (79.3% sensitivity, 81.5% specificity).
- Baseline FSA scores predicted antipsychotic treatment response in longitudinal cohorts.
- FSA demonstrated a spectrum of striatal dysfunction severity across disorders, most pronounced in schizophrenia.
Conclusions:
- FSA is a validated neuroimaging biomarker for indexing striatal dysfunction in schizophrenia.
- FSA aids in predicting treatment response, clinical stratification, and understanding striatal pathology in neuropsychiatric disorders.
