title: Structure and dynamics of functional networks in child-onset schizophrenia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Schizophrenia is a neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by cognitive and emotional deficits and associated with various abnormalities in the organization of neural circuits. It is currently unclear how and to which extend the global network organization is changed due to such disorder. In this work, we analyzed cortical networks of healthy subjects and patients with child-onset schizophrenia to address this issue.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a comparison of cortical networks extracted from functional MRI data of patients with schizophrenia and healthy subjects considering their topological and dynamical properties.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among 54 network measures tested, only four contributed substantially to a discrimination between the classes of healthy and schizophrenic subjects, with a sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 74%. However, such classes of networks did not differ significantly with respect to the level of network resilience and synchronization.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Schizophrenic subjects have cortical regions with higher variance of network centrality, but less modular structure.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that it is possible to establish data analysis routines that allow automatic diagnosis of a multifaceted disease like child-onset schizophrenia based on fMRI data of individual subjects and extracted network properties.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Matemática Aplicada e Estatística, Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e de Computação, Universidade de São Paulo, CEP: 13566-590, São Carlos, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Guilherme Ferraz
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: de Arruda
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Física de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, 13560-970, São Carlos, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Luciano da
authors.initials: Ld
authors.lastname: Fontoura Costa
authors.affiliation: Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Postbus 9101 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schubert
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Matemática Aplicada e Estatística, Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e de Computação, Universidade de São Paulo, CEP: 13566-590, São Carlos, SP, Brazil. Electronic address: francisco@icmc.usp.br.
authors.forename: Francisco A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D066264:Datasets as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Child-onset schizophrenia; Complex networks; Cortical networks; Schizophrenia