Dynamic Alterations of Amplitude of Low-Frequency Fluctuations in Patients With Drug-Naïve First-Episode Early Onset Schizophrenia.

Qiang Li,Sha Liu,Long Cheng,Yanfang Wang,Yong Xu,Zexuan Li,Xiaohua Cao,Chengxiang Yang

doi:10.3389/fnins.2020.00901

Abstract

Abnormalities in static neural activity have been widely reported in early onset schizophrenia (EOS). However, dynamic brain activity alterations over time in EOS are unclear. Here, we investigated whether temporal dynamic changes in spontaneous neural activity are influenced by EOS. A total of 78 drug-naïve first-episode patients with EOS and 90 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled in this study. Dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (dALFF) was performed to examine the abnormal time-varying local neural activity in EOS. Furthermore, we investigated the relationships between abnormalities in dALFF variability and clinical characteristics in EOS patients. Compared to HCs, EOS patients showed significantly decreased dALFF variability in the bilateral precuneus, right superior marginal gyrus, right post-central gyrus and increased dALFF in the right middle temporal gyrus (MTG). Moreover, increased dALFF variability in MTG was negatively associated with negative symptoms in EOS. Our findings reveal increased dynamic local neural activity in higher order networks of the cortex, suggesting that enhanced spontaneous brain activity may be a predominant neural marker for brain maturation. In addition, decreased dALFF variability in the default mode network (DMN) and limbic system may reflect unusually dynamic neural activity. This dysfunctional brain activity could distinguish between patients and HCs and deepen our understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of EOS.

Highlights

Onset schizophrenia (EOS) is defined as schizophrenia during adolescence or before adolescence, and is associated with severe impairments including hallucinations, delusions and cognitive deficiencies (Kyriakopoulos et al, 2008; Paus et al, 2008; Jiang et al, 2015)
We further examined the correlations between alterations of Dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (dALFF) and aALFF in terms of spatial and temporal distribution
We identified the temporal variability of dynamic spontaneous neural activity in Early onset schizophrenia (EOS) patients by using a novel dALFF method

Summary

Introduction

Onset schizophrenia (EOS) is defined as schizophrenia during adolescence or before adolescence, and is associated with severe impairments including hallucinations, delusions and cognitive deficiencies (Kyriakopoulos et al, 2008; Paus et al, 2008; Jiang et al, 2015). Abnormal brain functional integration have been observed in EOS, including significantly reduced functional activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), frontal operculum and decreased neural activity of PFC (Yang et al, 2014; Jiang et al, 2015; Li et al, 2015). These functional disruptions were correlated with dysfunctional working memory (WM) performance (Kyriakopoulos et al, 2012; Bittner et al, 2015). Such abnormal brain functional activity might contribute to the neuropathological mechanisms of EOS, potentially making abnormal functional activity an early biomarker for the early diagnosis of EOS

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Discussion

Conclusion