title: Abnormal Connectional Fingerprint in Schizophrenia: A Novel Network Analysis of Diffusion Tensor Imaging Data.
abstract: The graph theoretical analysis of structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data has received a great deal of interest in recent years to characterize the organizational principles of brain networks and their alterations in psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia. However, the characterization of networks in clinical populations can be challenging, since the comparison of connectivity between groups is influenced by several factors, such as the overall number of connections and the structural abnormalities of the seed regions. To overcome these limitations, the current study employed the whole-brain analysis of connectional fingerprints in diffusion tensor imaging data obtained at 3 T of chronic schizophrenia patients (n = 16) and healthy, age-matched control participants (n = 17). Probabilistic tractography was performed to quantify the connectivity of 110 brain areas. The connectional fingerprint of a brain area represents the set of relative connection probabilities to all its target areas and is, hence, less affected by overall white and gray matter changes than absolute connectivity measures. After detecting brain regions with abnormal connectional fingerprints through similarity measures, we tested each of its relative connection probability between groups. We found altered connectional fingerprints in schizophrenia patients consistent with a dysconnectivity syndrome. While the medial frontal gyrus showed only reduced connectivity, the connectional fingerprints of the inferior frontal gyrus and the putamen mainly contained relatively increased connection probabilities to areas in the frontal, limbic, and subcortical areas. These findings are in line with previous studies that reported abnormalities in striatal-frontal circuits in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, highlighting the potential utility of connectional fingerprints for the analysis of anatomical networks in the disorder.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Cologne, Cologne, Germany; Department of Neurophysiology, Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Max-Planck Institute for Metabolism Research, Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Sharmili
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Edwin Thanarajah
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronics and Information Engineering, Korea University, Sejong, South Korea; Department of Bio-Convergence Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea; Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Cheol E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurophysiology, Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research , Frankfurt am Main , Germany.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rotarska-Jagiela
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurophysiology, Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Ernst-Strüngmann Institut, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Frankfurt Institute of Advanced Studies, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Wolf
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Singer
authors.affiliation: Brain Imaging Centre, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main , Frankfurt am Main , Germany.
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Deichmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main , Frankfurt am Main , Germany.
authors.forename: Konrad
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Maurer
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea; Interdisciplinary Computing and Complex BioSystems (ICOS) Research, School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK; Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK.
authors.forename: Marcus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurophysiology, Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Uhlhaas
keywords: connectional fingerprint; diffusion tensor imaging; graph theory; neuroinformatics; schizophrenia