Abstract
Background Previous studies have revealed the abnormalities in homotopic connectivity in schizophrenia. However, the relationship of these deficits to antipsychotic treatment in schizophrenia remains unclear. This study explored the effects of antipsychotic therapy on brain homotopic connectivity and whether the homotopic connectivity of these regions might predict individual treatment response in schizophrenic patients. Methods A total of 21 schizophrenic patients and 20 healthy controls were scanned by the resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. The patients received olanzapine treatment and were scanned at two time points. Voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) and pattern classification techniques were applied to analyze the imaging data. Results Schizophrenic patients presented significantly decreased VMHC in the temporal and inferior frontal gyri, medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), and motor and low-level sensory processing regions (including the fusiform gyrus and cerebellum lobule VI) relative to healthy controls. The VMHC in the superior/middle MPFC was significantly increased in the patients after eight weeks of treatment. Support vector regression (SVR) analyses revealed that VMHC in the superior/middle MPFC at baseline can predict the symptomatic improvement of the positive and negative syndrome scale after eight weeks of treatment. Conclusions This study demonstrated that olanzapine treatment may normalize decreased homotopic connectivity in the superior/middle MPFC in schizophrenic patients. The VMHC in the superior/middle MPFC may predict individual response for antipsychotic therapy. The findings of this study conduce to the comprehension of the therapy effects of antipsychotic medications on homotopic connectivity in schizophrenia.
Highlights
Schizophrenia, as we know, is a chronic and serious mental illness, and previous studies have shown its interhemispheric deficits [1, 2]
The present results revealed that schizophrenic patients had reduced Voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) in the orbital inferior frontal gyrus (IFG)/superior temporal gyrus (STG), fusiform gyrus/cerebellum VI, STG, middle temporal gyrus (MTG)/angular gyrus, opercular IFG, superior and middle medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), precentral gyrus, superior/middle MPFC, precentral gyrus/postcentral gyrus, precuneus, and medial orbital frontal gyrus (FG) and increased VMHC in the median cingulum gyrus relative to the controls at baseline
No correlation was found between the abnormal VMHC and the positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS)/cognition parameter scores for the patients at baseline and between the VMHC changes and the reductions in the PANSS/cognition parameter scores for the patients after treatment
Summary
Schizophrenia, as we know, is a chronic and serious mental illness, and previous studies have shown its interhemispheric deficits [1, 2]. Previous studies have revealed the abnormalities in homotopic connectivity in schizophrenia. This study explored the effects of antipsychotic therapy on brain homotopic connectivity and whether the homotopic connectivity of these regions might predict individual treatment response in schizophrenic patients. The VMHC in the superior/middle MPFC was significantly increased in the patients after eight weeks of treatment. Support vector regression (SVR) analyses revealed that VMHC in the superior/middle MPFC at baseline can predict the symptomatic improvement of the positive and negative syndrome scale after eight weeks of treatment. This study demonstrated that olanzapine treatment may normalize decreased homotopic connectivity in the superior/middle MPFC in schizophrenic patients. The VMHC in the superior/middle MPFC may predict individual response for antipsychotic therapy. The findings of this study conduce to the comprehension of the therapy effects of antipsychotic medications on homotopic connectivity in schizophrenia
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