Default mode network integrity across neuropsychiatric disorders and its relation to social dysfunction: A normative...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Default Mode Network (DMN) alterations are implicated in neuropsychiatric disorders and social dysfunction.
• Normative modeling offers a method to assess individual DMN deviations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate individual DMN deviations in cortical thickness, surface area, and functional connectivity across schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, Alzheimer's disease, and healthy controls.
• To determine if these DMN deviations are transdiagnostically associated with social dysfunction.

Main Methods:

• Utilized structural and resting-state fMRI data from 329 and 317 participants, respectively.
• Computed individual DMN deviation scores using normative models for cortical thickness, surface area, and functional connectivity.
• Assessed social dysfunction via the Social Functioning Scale and De Jong-Gierveld Loneliness scale.

Main Results:

• No transdiagnostic association was found between DMN deviation scores and social dysfunction.
• Alzheimer's disease patients exhibited more extreme negative deviations in DMN cortical thickness compared to all other groups.
• Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia patients showed more extreme negative deviations in DMN functional connectivity than major depressive disorder and healthy controls.

Conclusions:

• Normative modeling reveals distinct individual DMN integrity deviations across neuropsychiatric conditions.
• These DMN deviations do not appear to be transdiagnostically linked to social dysfunction.