Disintegration of Sensorimotor Brain Networks in Schizophrenia.
BACKGROUND
Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder associated with derogated function across various domains, including perception, language, motor, emotional, and social behavior. Due to its complex symptomatology, schizophrenia is often regarded a disorder of cognitive processes. Yet due to the frequent involvement of sensory and perceptual symptoms, it has been hypothesized that functional disintegration between sensory and cognitive processes mediates the heterogeneous and comprehensive schizophrenia symptomatology.


METHODS
Here, using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging in 71 patients and 196 healthy controls, we characterized the standard deviation in BOLD (blood-oxygen-level-dependent) signal amplitude and the functional connectivity across a range of functional brain networks. We investigated connectivity on the edge and node level using network modeling based on independent component analysis and utilized the brain network features in cross-validated classification procedures.


RESULTS
Both amplitude and connectivity were significantly altered in patients, largely involving sensory networks. Reduced standard deviation in amplitude was observed in a range of visual, sensorimotor, and auditory nodes in patients. The strongest differences in connectivity implicated within-sensorimotor and sensorimotor-thalamic connections. Furthermore, sensory nodes displayed widespread alterations in the connectivity with higher-order nodes. We demonstrated robustness of effects across subjects by significantly classifying diagnostic group on the individual level based on cross-validated multivariate connectivity features.


CONCLUSIONS
Taken together, the findings support the hypothesis of disintegrated sensory and cognitive processes in schizophrenia, and the foci of effects emphasize that targeting the sensory and perceptual domains may be key to enhance our understanding of schizophrenia pathophysiology.
NORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; tobias.kaufmann@medisin.uio.no.
Tobias
T
Kaufmann
NORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway;
Kristina C
KC
Skåtun
Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway;
Dag
D
Alnæs
NORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway;
Nhat Trung
NT
Doan
FMRIB Centre, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK;
Eugene P
EP
Duff
NORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway;
Siren
S
Tønnesen
FMRIB Centre, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK;
Evangelos
E
Roussos
NORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway;
Torill
T
Ueland
NORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Department of Specialized Inpatient Treatment, Division of Mental Health Services, Akershus University Hospital, Oslo, Norway;
Sofie R
SR
Aminoff
NORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway;
Trine V
TV
Lagerberg
NORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Department of Psychiatric Research, Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
Ingrid
I
Agartz
NORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway;
Ingrid S
IS
Melle
FMRIB Centre, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK;
Stephen M
SM
Smith
NORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway;
Ole A
OA
Andreassen
NORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway;
Lars T
LT
Westlye
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D000069550:Machine Learning; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D066191:Sensorimotor Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013788:Thalamus / Q000503:physiopathology; D055815:Young Adult
functional imaging; machine learning; resting state; schizophrenia