Altered functional connectivity in the regions related to negative schema in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder
Poster B47, Tuesday, October%209, 11:30%20am%20-%201:00%20pm, Essex%20Ballroom
Woo-Sung Kim1, Guang Fan Shen2, Kang Han Oh3, Il Seok Oh3, Young-Chul Chung2,4; 1Department of Medical Science, Chonbuk National University, 2Department of Psychiatry, Chonbuk National University Hospital, 3Division of Computer Science and Engineering, Chonbuk National University, 4Research Institute of Clinical Medicine of Chonbuk National University-Biomedical Research Institute of Chonbuk National University Hospital
Objective: Abnormal brain connectivity in resting state is commonly reported in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder. Functional connectivity in regions related to negative schema was explored in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder and healthy controls Methods: We recruited patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder (n=36) and healthy controls (n=25). Resting state fMRI scans were acquired for 5 min instructing to close eyes and relax but not to sleep. We selected a total of 7 seeds shown to be significant regions in the group analysis of task-based(evoking negative schema) fMRI data. We compared the differences of brain connectivity between the groups. Results: Compared with healthy controls, seed to voxel connectivity analysis showed three significant hyper-connectivity (thresholded at p < 0.05, FDR corrected, cluster size > 50) in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder: 1) thalamus – precuneus, lingual gyrus, posterior cingulate gyrus; 2) calcarine cortex – right lateral occipital cortex and right fusiform cortex; and 3) left hippocampus – right calcarine cortex. In the ROI to ROI analysis, patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder were found to have hyper-connectivity (thresholded at p < 0.05, FDR corrected, cluster size > 50) between the left hippocampus and right intracalcarine cortex. There were no significant hypo-connectivity results in both analyses. Conclusions: Our results indicate that the functional connections between the thalamus, calcarine cortex, hippocampus and other brain regions were increased in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder. The relevance of the findings is discussed in terms of understanding the pathogenesis of psychotic symptoms.
Topic Area: Neuroimaging