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Resting-state functional hypoconnectivity of amygdala in clinical high risk state and first-episode schizophrenia

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Abstract

Resting-state functional hypoconnectivity of the amygdala with several brain regions has been identified in patients with schizophrenia. However, little is known about it in individuals at clinical high risk state. Treatment-seeking, drug-naive young adults were recruited for the study. The participants included 33 adults at Clinical High Risk (CHRs), 31 adults with first-episode schizophrenia (FSZs), and 37 age-, gender-, and education-matched healthy controls. All the participants were subjected to resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans. Seed-based voxel-wise amygdala/whole-brain functional connectivity (FC) was calculated and compared. In the CHR group, the right amygdala showed decreased FC with clusters located in the left orbital, right temporal, insular, and bilateral frontal and cingulate areas. In the FSZ group, the right amygdala showed decreased FC with clusters located in the right temporal, insular, cingulate, and frontal areas. Exactly 30% of the voxels showing decreased FC in the FSZ group coincided with those in the CHR group. No difference in FC was identified between the CHR and FSZ groups. Voxel-wise FC values with the left or right amygdala in the bilateral occipital cortex were negatively correlated with the PANSS total score in the FSZ group. Resting-state functional hypoconnectivity of the amygdala is a valuable risk phenotype of schizophrenia, and its distribution, rather than degree, distinguishes CHR state from schizophrenia. This particular hypoconnectivity in CHRs and FSZs is relatively independent of the symptomatology and may reflect a dysfunctional dopamine system.

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Funding

This study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 81571310, 81630033, and 81471363), the National Key Research and Development Program (2016YFC1307100 and 2016YFC1306900), and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi Province for Distinguished Young Scientists (Grant No. 2014GXNSFGA118010).

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Correspondence to Jingping Zhao or Wenbin Guo.

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The authors report no relevant financial conflicts.

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Authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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The procedure performed in this study was in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Written informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Supplementary Fig. 1

Regions showing hypoconnectivity with the right amygdala in CHRs and FSZs. Color bars shows T values in whole-brain scale voxel-wise comparisons. Blue shows FC decrease when compared with HCs. (PNG 593 kb)

High Resolution (TIF 2527 kb)

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Wang, G., Lyu, H., Wu, R. et al. Resting-state functional hypoconnectivity of amygdala in clinical high risk state and first-episode schizophrenia. Brain Imaging and Behavior 14, 1840–1849 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-019-00124-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-019-00124-5

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