Illness-related variables and abnormalities of resting-state brain activity in schizophrenia

The development of neuroimaging biomarkers in patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) requires a refined clinical characterization. A limitation of the neuroimaging literature is the partial uptake of progress in characterizing disease-related features, particularly negative symptoms (NS) and cognitive impairment (CI). In the present study, we assessed NS and CI using up-to-date instruments and investigated the associations of abnormalities in brain resting-state (rs)-activity with disease-related features.

Sixty-two community-dwelling SCZ subjects participated in the study. Multiple regression analyses were performed with the rs-activity of nine regions of interest as dependent variables and disease-related features as explanatory variables.

Attention/vigilance deficits were negatively associated with dorsal anterior cingulate rs-activity and, together with depression, were positively associated with right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex rs-activity. These deficits and impairment of Reasoning/problem-solving, together with conceptual disorganization, were associated with right inferior parietal lobule and temporal parietal junction rs-activity. Independent of other features, the NS Expressive Deficit domain was associated with the left ventral caudate, while the Motivational Deficit was associated with the dorsal caudate rs-activity.

Neurocognitive deficits and the two negative symptom domains are associated with different neural markers. Replications of these findings could foster the identification of clinically actionable biomarkers of poor functional outcomes.