Functional MRI Study Of First-episode Schizophrenia Patients With Auditory Verbal Hallucinations And The First-degree Relatives Of Schizophrenia Patients

Part1 A study of whole brain white matter changes in auditory verbal hallucinations in patients with first-episode schizophreniaObjective To study the whole white matter fiber changes in first-episode schizophrenia patients with auditory verbal hallucination. Methods Twenty-five first-episode schizophrenia patients with auditory verbal hallucination and twenty-five normal controls were scanned using DTI. The spatial statistical analysis based on TBSS methods to analyze both groups were whole brain FA figure, using random permutation test FA values in statistical analysis of the two groups. Results Compared with normal control group, the first-episode schizophrenic with auditory hallucination groups of left orbit frontal cortex and inferior parietal lobule FA values decreased significantly, with statistical differences(P <0.05).Conclusion This study shows that TBSS method can be more comprehensive and accurate analysis of first-episode schizophrenia patients with auditory verbal hallucination early cerebral white matter changes, for first-episode schizophrenia patients with auditory verbal hallucination of early detection and early intervention to provide objective and effective evaluation of neuroimaging.Part2 Abnormal brain effective connectivity in the first-degree relatives of patients with schizophreniaObjective Familial risk plays a significant role in the etiology of schizophrenia. Many studies using neuroimaging have demonstrated structural and functional alterations in relatives of SZ patients, with significant results found in diverse brain regions involving the anterior cingulate cortex, caudate, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus. This study investigated whether unaffected relatives of first episode SZ differ from healthy controls in effective connectivity measures among these regions. Methods Forty-six unaffected first-degree relatives of patients with a first episode of psychosis and diagnosis of SZ—according to the DSM-IV—were studied. Fifty HCs were included for comparison. All subjects underwent resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging. We used stochastic dynamic causal modeling to estimate directed connections between the left ACC, right ACC, left caudate, right caudate, left DLPFC, left hippocampus, and right hippocampus. We used Bayesian parameter averaging to characterize the differences. Results The BPA results of the effective connectivity of relatives showed hyperconnectivity from the left ACC to right hippocampus and hypoconnectivity from the right ACC to right hippocampus compared to HCs. Conclusion The pattern of anterior cingulate cortico-hippocampal connectivity in SZ relatives may be a familial feature of SZ risk, appearing to reflect familial susceptibility for SZ.