title: Reduction of Interhemispheric Functional Connectivity in Sensorimotor and Visual Information Processing Pathways in Schizophrenia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Previous studies have demonstrated interhemispheric functional connectivity alterations in schizophrenia. However, the relationship between these alterations and the disease state of schizophrenia is largely unknown. Therefore, we aimed to investigate this relationship using voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) method.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study enrolled 36 schizophrenia patients with complete remission, 58 schizophrenia patients with incomplete remission and 55 healthy controls. The VMHC was calculated based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data. Differences in VMHC among three groups were compared using one-way analysis of variance. A brain region with a significant difference in VMHC was defined as a region of interest (ROI), and the mean VMHC value in the ROI was extracted for the post hoc analysis, i.e., pair-wise comparisons across the three groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  VMHC in the visual region (inferior occipital and fusiform gyri) and the sensorimotor region (paracentral lobule) showed significant differences among the three groups (P < 0.05, a false discovery rate method corrected). Pair-wise comparisons in the post hoc analysis showed that VMHC of the visual and sensorimotor regions in schizophrenia patients with complete remission and incomplete remission was lower than that in healthy controls (P < 0.05, Bonferroni corrected); however, there was no significant difference between the two patient subgroups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Interhemispheric functional connectivity in the sensorimotor and visual processing pathways was reduced in patients with schizophrenia, but this reduction was unrelated to the disease state; thus, this reduction may serve as a trait marker of schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin 300052, China.
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, First Clinical Medical College, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, Shanxi 030001, China.
authors.forename: Le
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Anning Hospital, Tianjin 300300; Tianjin Mental Health Center, Tianjin Anding Hospital, Tianjin 300070, China.
authors.forename: Chuan-Jun
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Zhuo
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Mental Health Center, Tianjin Anding Hospital, Tianjin 300070, China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Mental Health Center, Tianjin Anding Hospital, Tianjin 300070, China.
authors.forename: Li-Na
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Mental Health Center, Tianjin Anding Hospital, Tianjin 300070, China.
authors.forename: Chun-Li
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D066191:Sensorimotor Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology