Disrupted cortical organization in schizophrenia based on functional connectivity gradients

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Brain Imaging

Background:

• Schizophrenia is characterized by functional connectivity disruptions, but specific brain regions and connectivity directions are inconsistent.
• A comprehensive whole-brain functional connectivity analysis is needed to understand brain dysfunction and symptoms.
• Gradient-based analysis offers a novel framework to investigate brain organization in schizophrenia.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate differences in primary gradient organization between schizophrenia patients and healthy controls.
• To explore the relationship between primary gradient alterations and clinical symptoms in schizophrenia.

Main Methods:

• Gradient analysis applied to resting-state fMRI data.
• Characterization of sensorimotor-to-transmodal functional cortical organization.
• Correlation analysis with Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) scores.

Main Results:

• Schizophrenia patients showed reduced sensorimotor-to-transmodal differentiation compared to controls.
• Increased gradient values in sensorimotor systems (e.g., visual network) and decreased values in higher-level systems (e.g., salience, frontoparietal networks) were observed.
• Primary gradient alterations correlated significantly with PANSS positive and negative subscales and SANS total scores.

Conclusions:

• Schizophrenia involves disrupted cortical functional organization due to reduced sensorimotor-to-transmodal gradient differentiation.
• These gradient alterations explain variability in specific clinical symptoms of schizophrenia.