Dynamic functional thalamocortical dysconnectivity in schizophrenia correlates to antipsychotics response

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Thalamocortical network abnormalities are documented in schizophrenia (SCZ).
• Dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) and antipsychotic effects on it remain understudied in SCZ.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate dFC in drug-naïve, first-episode SCZ patients.
• Examine the impact of 12-week risperidone treatment on thalamocortical dFC.
• Correlate dFC changes with symptom severity and treatment response.

Main Methods:

• Recruited drug-naïve first-episode SCZ patients and healthy controls.
• Acquired resting-state fMRI at baseline and after 12 weeks of risperidone treatment.
• Utilized sliding window analysis to assess dFC in six functional thalamic subdivisions.

Main Results:

• SCZ patients exhibited altered dFC variance across thalamic subdivisions.
• Baseline VPL-rdSFG dFC correlated with psychotic symptoms.
• Risperidone treatment decreased VPL-rmoSFG/rdSFG dFC variance, correlating with symptom reduction.
• Decreased VPL-rmoSFG/rdSFG dFC observed in treatment responders.

Conclusions:

• Abnormal thalamocortical dFC variability is linked to psychopathology in SCZ.
• Thalamocortical dFC variance may serve as a biomarker for antipsychotic treatment efficacy.