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Tracking dynamic EEG connectivity in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder
Aaron Maturana-Candelas1,2, Antonio J Ibáñez-Molina3, Víctor Rodríguez-González4,5
1Biomedical Engineering Group, E.T.S.I. de Telecomunicación, Universidad de Valladolid, 47011, Valladolid, Spain. aaron.maturana@uva.es.
Scientific Reports
|October 30, 2025
Summary
Dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) analysis of electroencephalography (EEG) data reveals distinct patterns in schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) patients. These findings suggest altered interneuronal communication in psychotic disorders.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Computational Neuroscience
Background:
- Psychotic disorders like schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) disrupt brain electrical activity, particularly functional connectivity (FC).
- Traditional FC analysis often treats brain connectivity as static, missing crucial dynamic fluctuations.
- Resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) offers a window into brain dynamics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate alterations in dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) in SCZ and BD patients compared to healthy controls (HC).
- To explore the utility of analyzing cumulants of average strength (aS) time series derived from instantaneous amplitude correlation (IAC) in canonical frequency bands.
Main Methods:
- Collected resting-state EEG data from SCZ patients, BD patients, and HC subjects.
- Computed instantaneous amplitude correlation (IAC) within canonical frequency bands.
- Analyzed the first- to fourth-order cumulants of the average strength (aS) time series derived from IAC matrices.
Main Results:
- Schizophrenia patients showed differences in aS mean and skewness (gamma band) compared to HC.
- Bipolar disorder patients exhibited differences in aS mean (delta band) compared to HC.
- Both SCZ and BD groups displayed altered aS skewness (beta band), suggesting non-Gaussian distributions indicative of disrupted interneuronal communication.
Conclusions:
- Dynamic FC analysis using EEG can detect brain function anomalies missed by static approaches.
- Altered aS distributions in SCZ and BD suggest "pathologically Gaussian" patterns, pointing to disrupted interneuronal communication.
- dFC analysis holds promise for understanding the neurobiology of psychotic disorders.
