title: Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging study of schizophrenia in the context of abnormal neurodevelopment using multiple site data in a Chinese Han population.
abstract: Schizophrenia has increasingly been considered a neurodevelopmental disorder, and the advancement of neuroimaging techniques and associated computational methods has enabled quantitative re-examination of this important theory on the pathogenesis of the disease. Inspired by previous findings from neonatal brains, we proposed that an increase in diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) mean diffusivity (MD) should be observed in the cerebral cortex of schizophrenia patients compared with healthy controls, corresponding to lower tissue complexity and potentially a failure to reach cortical maturation. We tested this hypothesis using dMRI data from a Chinese Han population comprising patients from four different hospital sites. Utilizing data-driven methods based on the state-of-the-art tensor-based registration algorithm, significantly increased MD measurements were consistently observed in the cortex of schizophrenia patients across all four sites, despite differences in psychopathology, exposure to antipsychotic medication and scanners used for image acquisition. Specifically, we found increased MD in the limbic system of the schizophrenic brain, mainly involving the bilateral insular and prefrontal cortices. In light of the existing literature, we speculate that this may represent a neuroanatomical signature of the disorder, reflecting microstructural deficits due to developmental abnormalities. Our findings not only provide strong support to the abnormal neurodevelopment theory of schizophrenia, but also highlight an important neuroimaging endophenotype for monitoring the developmental trajectory of high-risk subjects of the disease, thereby facilitating early detection and prevention.
authors.affiliation: Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.|National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.|National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.|National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Xijing Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Peking University Sixth Hospital/Institute of Mental Health, Beijing, China.|Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Ministry of Health (Peking University), Beijing, China.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Peking University Sixth Hospital/Institute of Mental Health, Beijing, China.|Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Ministry of Health (Peking University), Beijing, China.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Henan Mental Hospital, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China.|Henan Key Lab of Biological Psychiatry, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Xijing Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Peking University Sixth Hospital/Institute of Mental Health, Beijing, China.|Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Ministry of Health (Peking University), Beijing, China.
authors.forename: H
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0376-9037
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Peking University Sixth Hospital/Institute of Mental Health, Beijing, China.|Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Ministry of Health (Peking University), Beijing, China.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Henan Mental Hospital, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China.|Department of Psychology, Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Peking University Sixth Hospital/Institute of Mental Health, Beijing, China.|Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Ministry of Health (Peking University), Beijing, China.|Center for Life Sciences/PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.|Brainnetome Center, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.|National Laboratory of Pattern Recognition, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.|Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.|CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: T
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0607-3775
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D002681:China; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D065886:Neurodevelopmental Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult