Structural network disorganization in subjects at clinical high risk for psychosis

A Schmidt, NA Crossley, F Harrisberger… - Schizophrenia …, 2017 - academic.oup.com
Schizophrenia bulletin, 2017academic.oup.com
Previous network studies in chronic schizophrenia patients revealed impaired structural
organization of the brain's rich-club members, a set of highly interconnected hub regions that
play an important integrative role for global brain communication. Moreover, impaired rich-
club connectivity has also been found in unaffected siblings of schizophrenia patients,
suggesting that abnormal rich-club connectivity is related to familiar, possibly reflecting
genetic, vulnerability for schizophrenia. However, no study has yet investigated whether …
Abstract
Previous network studies in chronic schizophrenia patients revealed impaired structural organization of the brain’s rich-club members, a set of highly interconnected hub regions that play an important integrative role for global brain communication. Moreover, impaired rich-club connectivity has also been found in unaffected siblings of schizophrenia patients, suggesting that abnormal rich-club connectivity is related to familiar, possibly reflecting genetic, vulnerability for schizophrenia. However, no study has yet investigated whether structural rich-club organization is also impaired in individuals with a clinical risk syndrome for psychosis. Diffusion tensor imaging and probabilistic tractography was used to construct structural whole-brain networks in 24 healthy controls and 24 subjects with an at-risk mental state (ARMS). Graph theory was applied to quantify the structural rich-club organization and global network properties. ARMS subjects revealed a significantly altered structural rich-club organization compared with the control group. The disruption of rich-club organization was associated with the severity of negative psychotic symptoms and led to an elevated level of modularity in ARMS subjects. This study shows that abnormal structural rich-club organization is already evident in clinical high-risk subjects for psychosis and further demonstrates the impact of rich-club disorganization on global network communication. Together with previous evidence in chronic schizophrenia patients and unaffected siblings, our findings suggest that abnormal structural rich-club organization may reflect an endophenotypic marker of psychosis.
Oxford University Press
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