Characteristics of disrupted topological organization in white matter functional connectome in schizophrenia

A new model for dynamic mapping of effective connectivity in task fMRI

Whole-brain dynamic functional connectivity is a growing area in neuroimaging research, encompassing data-driven methods for investigating how large-scale brain networks dynamically reorganize during resting states. However, this approach has been rarely applied to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data acquired during task performance. In this study, we first combined the psychophysiological interactions (PPI) and sliding-window methods to analyze dynamic effective connectivity of fMRI data obtained from subjects performing the N-back task within the Human Connectome Project dataset. We then proposed a hypothetical model called Condition Activated Specific Trajectory (CAST) to represent a series of spatiotemporal synchronous changes in significantly activated connections across time windows, which we refer to as a trajectory. Our finding demonstrate that the CAST model outperforms other models in terms of intra-group consistency of individual spatial pattern of PPI connectivity, overall representational ability of temporal variability and hierarchy for individual task performance and cognitive traits. This dynamic view afforded by the CAST model reflects the intrinsic nature of coherent brain activities.

Neuroimaging features of cognitive impairments in schizophrenia and major depressive disorder

Cognitive dysfunctions are one of the key symptoms of schizophrenia (SZ) and major depressive disorder (MDD), which exist not only during the onset of diseases but also before the onset, even after the remission of psychiatric symptoms. With the development of neuroimaging techniques, these non-invasive approaches provide valuable insights into the underlying pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders and information of cognitive remediation interventions. This review synthesizes existing neuroimaging studies to examine domains of cognitive impairment, particularly processing speed, memory, attention, and executive function in SZ and MDD patients. First, white matter (WM) abnormalities are observed in processing speed deficits in both SZ and MDD, with distinct neuroimaging findings highlighting WM connectivity abnormalities in SZ and WM hyperintensity caused by small vessel disease in MDD. Additionally, the abnormal functions of prefrontal cortex and medial temporal lobe are found in both SZ and MDD patients during various memory tasks, while aberrant amygdala activity potentially contributes to a preference to negative memories in MDD. Furthermore, impaired large-scale networks including frontoparietal network, dorsal attention network, and ventral attention network are related to attention deficits, both in SZ and MDD patients. Finally, abnormal activity and volume of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and abnormal functional connections between the DLPFC and the cerebellum are associated with executive dysfunction in both SZ and MDD. Despite these insights, longitudinal neuroimaging studies are lacking, impeding a comprehensive understanding of cognitive changes and the development of early intervention strategies for SZ and MDD. Addressing this gap is critical for advancing our knowledge and improving patient prognosis.

Axonal tension contributes to consistent fold placement

Cortical folding is a critical process during brain development, resulting in morphologies that are both consistent and distinct between individuals and species. While earlier studies have highlighted important aspects of cortical folding, most existing computational models, based on the differential growth theory, fall short of explaining why folds tend to appear in particular locations. The axon tension hypothesis may provide insight into this conundrum; however, there has been significant controversy about a potential role of axonal tension during the gyrification. The common opinion in the field is that axonal tension is inadequate to drive gyrification, but we currently run the risk of discarding this hypothesis without comprehensively studying the role of axonal tension. Here we propose a novel bi-layered finite element model incorporating the two theories, including characteristic axonal tension in the subcortex and differential cortical growth. We show that axon tension can serve as a perturbation sufficient to trigger buckling in simulations; similarly to other types of perturbations, the natural stability behavior of the system tends to determine some characteristics of the folding morphology (e.g. the wavelength) while the perturbation determines the location of folds. Certain geometries, however, can interact or compete with the natural stability of the system to change the wavelength. When multiple perturbations are present, they similarly compete with each other. We found that an axon bundle of reasonable size will overpower up to a 5% thickness perturbation (typical in the literature) and determine fold placement. Finally, when multiple axon tracts are present, even a slight difference in axon stiffness, representing the heterogeneity of axonal connections, is enough to significantly change the folding pattern. While the simulations presented here are a very simple representation of white matter connectivity, our findings point to urgent future research on the role of axon connectivity in cortical folding.

Altered white matter functional pathways in Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with functional disruption in gray matter (GM) and structural damage to white matter (WM), but the relationship to functional signal in WM is unknown. We performed the functional connectivity (FC) and graph theory analysis to investigate abnormalities of WM and GM functional networks and corpus callosum among different stages of AD from a publicly available dataset. Compared to the controls, AD group showed significantly decreased FC between the deep WM functional network (WM-FN) and the splenium of corpus callosum, between the sensorimotor/occipital WM-FN and GM visual network, but increased FC between the deep WM-FN and the GM sensorimotor network. In the clinical groups, the global assortativity, modular interaction between occipital WM-FN and visual network, nodal betweenness centrality, degree centrality, and nodal clustering coefficient in WM- and GM-FNs were reduced. However, modular interaction between deep WM-FN and sensorimotor network, and participation coefficients of deep WM-FN and splenium of corpus callosum were increased. These findings revealed the abnormal integration of functional networks in different stages of AD from a novel WM-FNs perspective. The abnormalities of WM functional pathways connect downward to the corpus callosum and upward to the GM are correlated with AD.

Analysis of Cortico-Muscular Coupling and Functional Brain Network under Different Standing Balance Paradigms

Maintaining standing balance is essential for people to engage in productive activities in daily life. However, the process of interaction between the cortex and the muscles during balance regulation is understudied. Four balance paradigms of different difficulty were designed by closing eyes and laying sponge pad under feet. Ten healthy subjects were recruited to stand for ten 15 s trials in each paradigm. This study used simultaneously acquired electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG) to investigate changes in the human cortico-muscular coupling relationship and functional brain network characteristics during balance control. The coherence and causality of EEG and EMG signals were calculated by magnitude-squared coherence (MSC) and transfer entropy (TE). It was found that changes in balance strategies may lead to a shift in cortico-muscular coherence (CMC) from the beta band to the gamma band when the difficulty of balance increased. As subjects performed the four standing balance paradigms, the causality of the beta band and the gamma band was stronger in the descending neural pathway than that in the ascending neural pathway. A multi-rhythmic functional brain network with 19 EEG channels was constructed and analyzed based on graph theory, showing that its topology also changed with changes in balance difficulty. These results show an active adjustment of the sensorimotor system under different balance paradigms and provide new insights into the endogenous physiological mechanisms underlying the control of standing balance.

Associations of resilience, white matter topological organization, and cognitive functions in first-episode, drug-naïve schizophrenia patients: A moderated mediation analysis

BACKGROUND

Cognitive deficits are core symptoms of schizophrenia (SZ) and are associated with impaired resilience to stress. Different cognitive functions appeared to be interrelated, and the mechanism may involve neural alterations. The disrupted topological organization indicated abnormalities in the segregation and integration of brain networks that support various cognitive processes in SZ patients. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the direct and indirect effects of resilience on cognitive functions. We hypothesized that topological properties would moderate these associations.

METHODS

Forty-nine SZ patients and fifty-two healthy controls (HCs) were recruited in this study. The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale and the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery were used to examine resilience and cognitive functions, respectively, and a graph theory approach was used to assess white matter topological organization.

RESULTS

Compared to HCs, SZ patients showed lower levels of resilience and cognitive functions in multiple domains as well as abnormal global properties and nodal metrics. In addition, shorter characteristic path length was associated with a stronger indirect effect of resilience on working memory through processing speed in SZ patients.

CONCLUSION

Characteristic path length might moderate the mediating effects of processing speed in the relationship between resilience and working memory in schizophrenia patients.

Different topological patterns in structural covariance networks between high and low delay discounters

Introduction

People prefer immediate over future rewards because they discount the latter's value (a phenomenon termed "delay discounting," used as an index of impulsivity). However, little is known about how the preferences are implemented in brain in terms of the coordinated pattern of large-scale structural brain networks.

Methods

To examine this question, we classified high discounting group (HDG) and low discounting group (LDG) in young adults by assessing their propensity for intertemporal choice. We compared global and regional topological properties in gray matter volume-based structural covariance networks between two groups using graph theoretical analysis.

Results

HDG had less clustering coefficient and characteristic path length over the wide sparsity range than LDG, indicating low network segregation and high integration. In addition, the degree of small-worldness was more significant in HDG. Locally, HDG showed less betweenness centrality (BC) in the parahippocampal gyrus and amygdala than LDG.

Discussion

These findings suggest the involvement of structural covariance network topology on impulsive choice, measured by delay discounting, and extend our understanding of how impulsive choice is associated with brain morphological features.

Altered topology of individual brain structural covariance networks in major depressive disorder

BACKGROUND

The neurobiological pathogenesis of major depression disorder (MDD) remains largely controversial. Previous literatures with limited sample size utilizing group-level structural covariance networks (SCN) commonly generated mixed findings regarding the topology of brain networks.

METHODS

We analyzed T1 images from a high-powered multisite sample including 1173 patients with MDD and 1019 healthy controls (HCs). We used regional gray matter volume to construct individual SCN by utilizing a novel approach based on the interregional effect size difference. We further investigated MDD-related structural connectivity alterations using topological metrics.

RESULTS

Compared to HCs, the MDD patients showed a shift toward randomization characterized by increased integration. Further subgroup analysis of patients in different stages revealed this randomization pattern was also observed in patients with recurrent MDD, while the first-episode drug naïve patients exhibited decreased segregation. Altered nodal properties in several brain regions which have a key role in both emotion regulation and executive control were also found in MDD patients compared with HCs. The abnormalities in inferior temporal gyrus were not influenced by any specific site. Moreover, antidepressants increased nodal efficiency in the anterior ventromedial prefrontal cortex.

CONCLUSIONS

The MDD patients at different stages exhibit distinct patterns of randomization in their brain networks, with increased integration during illness progression. These findings provide valuable insights into the disruption in structural brain networks that occurs in patients with MDD and might be useful to guide future therapeutic interventions.

Structural connectome alterations in anxious dogs: a DTI-based study

Anxiety and fear are dysfunctional behaviors commonly observed in domesticated dogs. Although dogs and humans share psychopathological similarities, little is known about how dysfunctional fear behaviors are represented in brain networks in dogs diagnosed with anxiety disorders. A combination of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and graph theory was used to investigate the underlying structural connections of dysfunctional anxiety in anxious dogs and compared with healthy dogs with normal behavior. The degree of anxiety was assessed using the Canine Behavioral Assessment & Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ), a widely used, validated questionnaire for abnormal behaviors in dogs. Anxious dogs showed significantly decreased clustering coefficient ([Formula: see text]), decreased global efficiency ([Formula: see text]), and increased small-worldness (σ) when compared with healthy dogs. The nodal parameters that differed between the anxious dogs and healthy dogs were mainly located in the posterior part of the brain, including the occipital lobe, posterior cingulate gyrus, hippocampus, mesencephalon, and cerebellum. Furthermore, the nodal degree ([Formula: see text]) of the left cerebellum was significantly negatively correlated with "excitability" in the C-BARQ of anxious dogs. These findings could contribute to the understanding of a disrupted brain structural connectome underlying the pathological mechanisms of anxiety-related disorders in dogs.

Intracranial electrophysiological and structural basis of BOLD functional connectivity in human brain white matter

While functional MRI (fMRI) studies have mainly focused on gray matter, recent studies have consistently found that blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) signals can be reliably detected in white matter, and functional connectivity (FC) has been organized into distributed networks in white matter. Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether this white matter FC reflects underlying electrophysiological synchronization. To address this question, we employ intracranial stereotactic-electroencephalography (SEEG) and resting-state fMRI data from a group of 16 patients with drug-resistant epilepsy. We find that BOLD FC is correlated with SEEG FC in white matter, and this result is consistent across a wide range of frequency bands for each participant. By including diffusion spectrum imaging data, we also find that white matter FC from both SEEG and fMRI are correlated with white matter structural connectivity, suggesting that anatomical fiber tracts underlie the functional synchronization in white matter. These results provide evidence for the electrophysiological and structural basis of white matter BOLD FC, which could be a potential biomarker for psychiatric and neurological disorders.

Altered white matter functional network in nicotine addiction

Nicotine addiction is a neuropsychiatric disorder with dysfunction in cortices as well as white matter (WM). The nature of the functional alterations in WM remains unclear. The small-world model can well characterize the structure and function of the human brain. In this study, we utilized the small-world model to compare the WM functional connectivity between 62 nicotine addiction participants (called the discovery sample) and 66 matched healthy controls (called the control sample). We also recruited an independent sample comprising 32 nicotine addicts (called the validation sample) for clinical application. The WM functional network data at the network level showed that the nicotine addiction group revealed decreased small-worldness index (σ) and normalized clustering coefficient (γ) compared with healthy controls. For clinical application, the small-world topology of WM functional connectivity could distinguish nicotine addicts from healthy controls (classification accuracy=0.59323, p = 0.0464). We trained abnormal small-world properties on the discovery sample to identify the severity of nicotine addiction, and the identification was successfully applied to the validation sample (classification accuracy=0.65625, p = 0.0106). Our neuroimaging findings provide direct evidence for WM functional changes in nicotine addiction and suggest that the small-world properties of WM function could be qualified as potential biomarkers in nicotine addiction.

The whole-brain connectome landscape in patients with schizophrenia: a systematic review and meta-analysis of graph theoretical characteristics

The alterations of connectome in schizophrenia have been reported, but the results remain inconsistent. We conducted a systematic review and random-effects meta-analysis on structural or functional connectome MRI studies comparing global graph theoretical characteristics between schizophrenia and healthy controls. Meta-regression and subgroup analyses were performed to examine confounding effects. Based on the included 48 studies, Structural connectome in schizophrenia showed a significant decrease in segregation (lower clustering coefficient and local efficiency, Hedge's g= -0.352 and -0.864, respectively) and integration (higher characteristic path length and lower global efficiency, Hedge's g= 0.532 and -0.577 respectively). The functional connectome showed no difference between groups except γ. Moderator analysis indicated that clinical and methodological factors exerted a potential effect on the graph theoretical characteristics. Our analysis revealed a weaker small-worldization trend in structural connectome of schizophrenia. For the relatively unchanged functional connectome, more homogenous and high-quality studies are warranted to elucidate whether the change was blurred by heterogeneity or the presentation of pathophysiological reconfiguration.

Structural network alterations in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma after radiotherapy: A 1-year longitudinal study

This longitudinal study explored the changed patterns of structural brain network after radiotherapy (RT) in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data were gathered from 35 patients with NPC at four time points: before RT (baseline), 0∼3 (acute), 6 (early delayed), and 12 months (late-delayed) after RT. The graph theory was used to characterize the dynamic topological properties after RT and the significant changes were detected over time at the global, regional and modular levels. Significantly altered regional metrics (nodal efficiency and degree centrality) were distributed in the prefrontal, temporal, parietal, frontal, and subcortical regions. The module, that exhibited a significantly altered within-module connectivity, had a high overlap with the default mode network (DMN). In addition, the global, regional and modular metrics showed a tendency of progressive decrease at the acute and early delayed stages, and a partial/full recovery at the late-delayed stage. This changed pattern illustrated that the radiation-induced brain damage began at the acute reaction stage and were aggravated at the early-delayed stage, and then partially recovered at the late-delayed stage. Furthermore, the spearman’s correlations between the abnormal nodal metrics and temporal dose were calculated and high correlations were found at the temporal (MTG.R and HES.L), subcortical (INS.R), prefrontal (ORBinf.L and ACG.L), and parietal (IPL.R) indicating that these regions were more sensitive to dose and should be mainly considered in radiotherapy treatment plan.

Decreased integration of default-mode network during a working memory task in schizophrenia with severe attention deficits

Background

Working memory (WM) and attention deficits are both important features of schizophrenia. WM is closely related to attention, for it acted as an important characteristic in activating and manipulating WM. However, the knowledge of neural mechanisms underlying the relationship between WM and attention deficits in schizophrenia is poorly investigated.

Methods

Graph theory was used to examine the network topology at the whole-brain and large-scale network levels among 125 schizophrenia patients with different severity of attention deficits (65 mild attention deficits; 46 moderate attention deficits; and 14 severe attention deficits) and 53 healthy controls (HCs) during an N-back WM task. These analyses were repeated in the same participants during the resting state.

Results

In the WM task, there were omnibus differences in small-worldness and normalized clustering coefficient at a whole-brain level and normalized characterized path length of the default-mode network (DMN) among all groups. Post hoc analysis further indicated that all patient groups showed increased small-worldness and normalized clustering coefficient of the whole brain compared with HCs, and schizophrenia with severe attention deficits showed increased normalized characterized path length of the DMN compared with schizophrenia with mild attention deficits and HCs. However, these observations were not persisted under the resting state. Further correlation analyses indicated that the increased normalized characterized path length of the DMN was correlated with more severe attentional deficits and poorer accuracy of the WM task.

Conclusion

Our research demonstrated that, compared with the schizophrenia patients with less attention deficits, disrupted integration of the DMN may more particularly underlie the WM deficits in schizophrenia patients with severe attention deficits.

Graph-Theory-Based Degree Centrality Combined with Machine Learning Algorithms Can Predict Response to Treatment with Antipsychotic Medications in Patients with First-Episode Schizophrenia

Objectives

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is associated with disrupted functional brain connectivity, and antipsychotic medications are the primary and most commonly used treatment for schizophrenia. However, not all patients respond to antipsychotic medications.

Methods

The study is aimed at investigating whether the graph-theory-based degree centrality (DC), derived from resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI), can predict the treatment outcomes. rs-fMRI data from 38 SCZ patients were collected and compared with findings from 38 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HCs). The patients were treated with antipsychotic medications for 16 weeks before undergoing a second rs-fMRI scan. DC data were processed using DPABI and SPM12 software.

Results

SCZ patients at baseline showed increased DC in the frontal and temporal gyrus, anterior cingulate cortex, and precuneus and reduced DC in bilateral subcortical gray matter structures. However, those abnormalities showed a clear renormalization after antipsychotic medication treatments. Support vector machine analysis using leave-one-out cross-validation achieved a correct classification rate of 84.2% (sensitivity 78.9%, specificity 89.5%, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) 0.925) for differentiating effective subjects from ineffective subjects. Brain areas that contributed most to the classification model were mainly located within the bilateral putamen, left inferior frontal gyrus, left middle occipital cortex, bilateral middle frontal gyrus, left cerebellum, left medial frontal gyrus, left inferior temporal gyrus, and left angular. Furthermore, the DC change within the bilateral putamen is negatively correlated with the symptom improvements after treatment.

Conclusions

Our study confirmed that graph-theory-based measures, combined with machine-learning algorithms, can provide crucial insights into pathophysiological mechanisms and the effectiveness of antipsychotic medications.

Increased functional connectivity of white-matter in myotonic dystrophy type 1

Background

Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is the most common and dominant inherited neuromuscular dystrophy disease in adults, involving multiple organs, including the brain. Although structural measurements showed that DM1 is predominantly associated with white-matter damage, they failed to reveal the dysfunction of the white-matter. Recent studies have demonstrated that the functional activity of white-matter is of great significance and has given us insights into revealing the mechanisms of brain disorders.

Materials and methods

Using resting-state fMRI data, we adopted a clustering analysis to identify the white-matter functional networks and calculated functional connectivity between these networks in 16 DM1 patients and 18 healthy controls (HCs). A two-sample t-test was conducted between the two groups. Partial correlation analyzes were performed between the altered white-matter FC and clinical MMSE or HAMD scores.

Results

We identified 13 white-matter functional networks by clustering analysis. These white-matter functional networks can be divided into a three-layer network (superficial, middle, and deep) according to their spatial distribution. Compared to HCs, DM1 patients showed increased FC within intra-layer white-matter and inter-layer white-matter networks. For intra-layer networks, the increased FC was mainly located in the inferior longitudinal fasciculus, prefrontal cortex, and corpus callosum networks. For inter-layer networks, the increased FC of DM1 patients is mainly located in the superior corona radiata and deep networks.

Conclusion

Results demonstrated the abnormalities of white-matter functional connectivity in DM1 located in both intra-layer and inter-layer white-matter networks and suggested that the pathophysiology mechanism of DM1 may be related to the white-matter functional dysconnectivity. Furthermore, it may facilitate the treatment development of DM1.

Age-Related Changes in Topological Properties of Individual Brain Metabolic Networks in Rats

Normal aging causes profound changes of structural degeneration and glucose hypometabolism in the human brain, even in the absence of disease. In recent years, with the extensive exploration of the topological characteristics of the human brain, related studies in rats have begun to investigate. However, age-related alterations of topological properties in individual brain metabolic network of rats remain unknown. In this study, a total of 48 healthy female Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats were used, including 24 young rats and 24 aged rats. We used Jensen-Shannon Divergence Similarity Estimation (JSSE) method for constructing individual metabolic networks to explore age-related topological properties and rich-club organization changes. Compared with the young rats, the aged rats showed significantly decreased clustering coefficient (Cp) and local efficiency (Eloc) across the whole-brain metabolic network. In terms of changes in local network measures, degree (D) and nodal efficiency (Enod) of left posterior dorsal hippocampus, and Enod of left olfactory tubercle were higher in the aged rats than in the young rats. About the rich-club analysis, the existence of rich-club organization in individual brain metabolic networks of rats was demonstrated. In addition, our findings further confirmed that rich-club connections were susceptible to aging. Relative to the young rats, the overall strength of rich-club connections was significantly reduced in the aged rats, while the overall strength of feeder and local connections was significantly increased. These findings demonstrated the age-related reorganization principle of the brain structure and improved our understanding of brain alternations during aging.

Functional reconfiguration of cerebellum-cerebral neural loop in schizophrenia following electroconvulsive therapy

Recent evidence highlights the role of the cerebellum-cerebral loop in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia (SZ). Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is clinically applied to augment the effect of antipsychotic drugs. The study aims to address whether the cerebellum-cerebral loop is involved in the mechanisms of ECT's augmentation effect. Forty-two SZ patients and 23 healthy controls (HC) were recruited and scanned using resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI). Twenty-one patients received modified ECT plus antipsychotics (MSZ group), and 21 patients took antipsychotics only (DSZ group). All patients were re-scanned four weeks later. Brain functional network was constructed according to the graph theory. The sub-network exhibited longitudinal changes after ECT or medications were constructed. For the MSZ group, a sub-network involving default-mode network and cerebellum showed significant longitudinal changes. For the DSZ group, a different sub-network involving the thalamus, frontal and occipital cortex was found to be altered in the follow-up scan. In addition, the changing FC of the left cerebellar crus2 region was correlated with the changing scores of the psychotic symptoms only in the MSZ group but not in the DSZ group. In conclusion, the cerebral-cerebellum loop is possibly involved in the antipsychotic mechanisms of ECT for schizophrenia.

Topological Abnormalities of Pallido-Thalamo-Cortical Circuit in Functional Brain Network of Patients With Nonchemotherapy With Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

INTRODUCTION

Some previous studies in patients with lung cancer have mainly focused on exploring the cognitive dysfunction and deficits of brain function associated with chemotherapy. However, little is known about functional brain alterations that might occur prior to chemotherapy. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate brain functional changes in patients with nonchemotherapy before chemotherapy with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

METHODS

Resting-state functional MRI data of 35 patients with NSCLC and 46 matched healthy controls (HCs) were acquired to construct functional brain networks. Graph theoretical analysis was then applied to investigate the differences of the network and nodal measures between groups. Finally, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to distinguish between NSCLC and HC.

RESULTS

Decreased nodal strength was found in the left inferior frontal gyrus (opercular part), inferior frontal gyrus (triangular part), inferior occipital gyrus, and right inferior frontal gyrus (triangular part) of patients with NSCLC while increased nodal strength was found in the right pallidum and thalamus. NSCLC also showed decreased nodal betweenness in the right superior occipital gyrus. Different hub regions distribution was found between groups, however, no hub regions showed group differences in the nodal measures. Furthermore, the ROC curve analysis showed good performance in distinguishing NSCLC from HC.

CONCLUSION

These results suggested that topological abnormalities of pallido-thalamo-cortical circuit in functional brain network might be related to NSCLC prior to chemotherapy, which provided new insights concerning the pathophysiological mechanisms of NSCLC and could serve as promising biological markers for the identification of patients with NSCLC.

Abnormal regional spontaneous brain activities in white matter in patients with autism spectrum disorder

Previous studies have demonstrated patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are accompanied by alterations of spontaneous brain activity in gray matter. However, whether the alterations of spontaneous brain activity exist in white matter remains largely unclear. In this study, 88 ASD patients and 87 typical controls (TCs) were included and regional homogeneity (ReHo) was calculated to characterize spontaneous brain activity in white matter. Voxel-wise two-sample t-tests were performed to investigate ReHo alterations, and cluster-level analyses were conducted to examine structural-functional coupling changes. Compared with TCs, the ASD group showed significantly decreased ReHo in the left superior corona radiata and left posterior limb of internal capsule, and decreased ReHo in the left anterior corona radiata with a trend level of significance. In addition, significantly weaker structural-functional coupling was observed in the left superior corona radiata and left posterior limb of internal capsule in ASD patients. Taken together, these findings highlighted abnormalities of white matter's regional spontaneous brain activity in ASD, which may provide new insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms of this disorder.

Surface-Based Spontaneous Oscillation in Schizophrenia: A Resting-State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Schizophrenia (SZ) is considered as a self-disorder with disordered local synchronous activation. Previous studies have reported widespread dyssynchrony of local activation in patients with SZ, which may be one of the crucial physiological mechanisms of SZ. To further verify this assumption, this work used a surface-based two-dimensional regional homogeneity (2dReHo) approach to compare the local neural synchronous spontaneous oscillation between patients with SZ and healthy controls (HC), instead of the volume-based regional homogeneity approach described in previous study. Ninety-seven SZ patients and 126 HC were recruited to this study, and we found the SZ showed abnormal 2dReHo across the cortical surface. Specifically, at the global level, the SZ patients showed significantly reduced global 2dReHo; at the vertex level, the foci with increased 2dReHo in SZ were located in the default mode network (DMN), frontoparietal network (FPN), and limbic network (LN); however, foci with decreased 2dReHo were located in the somatomotor network (SMN), auditory network (AN), and visual network (VN). Additionally, this work found positive correlations between the 2dReHo of bilateral rectus and illness duration, as well as a significant positive correlation between the 2dReHo of right orbital inferior frontal gyrus (OIFG) with the negative scores of the positive and negative syndrome scale in the SZ patients. Therefore, the 2dReHo could provide some effective features contributed to explore the pathophysiology mechanism of SZ.

Atypical Antipsychotics Mediate Dynamics of Intrinsic Brain Activity in Early-Stage Schizophrenia? A Preliminary Study

OBJECTIVE

Abnormalities of static brain activity have been reported in schizophrenia, but it remains to be clarified the temporal variability of intrinsic brain activities in schizophrenia and how atypical antipsychotics affect it.

METHODS

We employed a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) and a sliding-window analysis of dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (dALFF) to evaluate the dynamic brain activities in schizophrenia (SZ) patients before and after 8-week antipsychotic treatment. Twenty-six schizophrenia individuals and 26 matched healthy controls (HC) were included in this study.

RESULTS

Compared with HC, SZ showed stronger dALFF in the right inferior temporal gyrus (ITG.R) at baseline. After medication, the SZ group exhibited reduced dALFF in the right middle occipital gyrus (MOG.R) and increased dALFF in the left superior frontal gyrus (SFG.L), right middle frontal gyrus (MFG.R), and right inferior parietal lobule (IPL.R). Dynamic ALFF in IPL.R was found to significant negative correlate with the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) scores at baseline.

CONCLUSION

Our results showed dynamic intrinsic brain activities altered in schizophrenia after short term antipsychotic treatment. The findings of this study support and expand the application of dALFF method in the study of the pathological mechanism in psychosis in the future.

Altered Functional Connectivity Strength at Rest in Medication-Free Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Background

Previous studies explored the whole-brain functional connectome using the degree approach in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, whether the altered degree values can be used to discriminate OCD from healthy controls (HCs) remains unclear.

Methods

A total of 40 medication-free patients with OCD and 38 HCs underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scan. Data were analyzed with the degree approach and a support vector machine (SVM) classifier.

Results

Patients with OCD showed increased degree values in the left thalamus and left cerebellum Crus I and decreased degree values in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, right precuneus, and left postcentral gyrus. SVM classification analysis indicated that the increased degree value in the left thalamus is a marker of OCD, with an acceptable accuracy of 88.46%, sensitivity of 87.50%, and specificity of 89.47%.

Conclusion

Altered degree values within and outside the cortical-striatal-thalamic-cortical (CSTC) circuit may cocontribute to the pathophysiology of OCD. Increased degree values of the left thalamus can be used as a future marker for OCD understanding-classification.

Function-structure coupling: White matter functional magnetic resonance imaging hyper-activation associates with structural integrity reductions in schizophrenia

White matter (WM) microstructure deficit may be an underlying factor in the brain dysconnectivity hypothesis of schizophrenia using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). However, WM dysfunction is unclear in schizophrenia. This study aimed to investigate the association between structural deficits and functional disturbances in major WM tracts in schizophrenia. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and DTI, we developed the skeleton-based WM functional analysis, which could achieve voxel-wise function-structure coupling by projecting the fMRI signals onto a skeleton in WM. We measured the fractional anisotropy (FA) and WM low-frequency oscillation (LFO) and their couplings in 93 schizophrenia patients and 122 healthy controls (HCs). An independent open database (62 schizophrenia patients and 71 HCs) was used to test the reproducibility. Finally, associations between WM LFO and five behaviour assessment categories (cognition, emotion, motor, personality and sensory) were examined. This study revealed a reversed pattern of structure and function in frontotemporal tracts, as follows. (a) WM hyper-LFO was associated with reduced FA in schizophrenia. (b) The function-structure association was positive in HCs but negative in schizophrenia patients. Furthermore, function-structure dissociation was exacerbated by long illness duration and severe negative symptoms. (c) WM activations were significantly related to cognition and emotion. This study indicated function-structure dys-coupling, with higher LFO and reduced structural integration in frontotemporal WM, which may reflect a potential mechanism in WM neuropathologic processing of schizophrenia.

Impairments in brain perfusion, executive control network, topological characteristics, and neurocognition in adult patients with asymptomatic Moyamoya disease

Background

Asymptomatic Moyamoya disease (MMD) impairs hemodynamic and cognitive function. The relationship between these changes, cerebral blood flow (CBF), and network connectivity remains largely unknown. The aim of this study was to increase understanding of the relationship between CBF, functional networks, and neurocognition in adults with asymptomatic MMD. We compared CBF and functional status in 26 patients with MMD and 20 healthy controls using arterial spin labeling and resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging sequences. At the same time, a detailed cognitive test was performed in 15 patients with no cerebral or lumen infarction who were selected by magnetic resonance imaging-T2 FLAIR screening.

Results

Compared to the controls, the patients showed varying degrees of decline in their computational ability (simple subtraction, p = 0.009; complex subtraction, p = 0.006) and short-term memory (p = 0.042). The asymptomatic MMD group also showed decreased CBF in the left anterior central and left inferior frontal gyri of the island flap with multiple node abnormalities in the brain network and reduced network connectivity. There was a significant association of these changes with cognitive decline in the MMD group.

Conclusions

In patients with asymptomatic MMD, disturbance of CBF and impaired brain network connections may be important causes of cognitive decline and appear before clinical symptoms.

Clinical trial registration-URL: http://www.chictr.org.cn

Unique identifier: ChiCTR1900023610

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12868-021-00638-z.

Modulation of glutamatergic functional connectivity by a prototypical antipsychotic: Translational inference from a postsynaptic density immediate-early gene-based network analysis

BACKGROUND

Although extensively studied, the effect of antipsychotics is not completely understood at a network level. We tested the hypothesis that acute administration of haloperidol would modulate functional connectivity of brain regions relevant to schizophrenia pathophysiology. To assess putative changes in brain network properties and regional interactivity, we studied the expression of Homer1a, an Immediate Early Gene (IEG) demonstrated to be induced by antipsychotic administration and coding for a protein involved in glutamatergic synapses remodeling.

METHODS

Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 26) assigned to vehicle (VEH; NaCl 0.9%) or haloperidol (HAL; 0.8 mg/kg) were included in the network analysis. Homer1a mRNA induction was evaluated by in situ hybridization. Signal intensity analysis was performed in 33 Regions of Interest (ROIs) in the cortex, the caudate putamen, and the nucleus accumbens. A signal correlation analysis was performed, computing all possible pairwise Pearson correlations among ROIs in the two groups. Two networks were generated for HAL and VEH groups, and their properties and topography were explored.

RESULTS

VEH and HAL networks showed qualitative differences in global efficiency and clustering coefficient. The HAL network showed enhanced interactivity between cortical and striatal regions, and within caudate putamen subdivisions. On the other hand, it exhibited reduced inter-correlations between cingulate cortex and anterior insula and caudate putamen and nucleus accumbens. Moreover, haloperidol was able to modulate centrality of crucial functional hubs. These preclinical results corroborate and expand the clinical evidence that antipsychotics may modulate specific brain network properties and disease-related circuits' interactivity.