Resting-state Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rs-fMRI) Study Of Female Schizophrenia Patients

ObjectiveIn the public’s impression,schizophrenia(SP)is a fearful word to talk about,and many people simply interpret it as a "madman" and stay away from it.The etiology of SP is not clear yet,and it is common in young adults,mainly manifested as obstacles in perception,thinking,emotion and behavior,as well as uncoordinated spiritual activities.SP is a global disease with a wide range of locations,spread across countries and regions,which has a high morbidity and recurrence rates,resulting in numerous disabilities.Therefore,the society family suffer a great deal of financial loss.Regarding to the pathogenesis of SP,some scholars have proposed the "glutamate hypothesis" and " disconnection hypothesis",and have gain some research evidences that can support these hypotheses.In this study,functional magnetic resonance imaging(f MRI)was used to study the brain structure and function,and two parameters,regional homogeneity(Re Ho)and amplitude of low frequency fluctuation(ALFF)were used to compare and analyze the abnormal local spontaneous brain activity of SP patients in schizophrenia group(SP)and healthy control group(HC).At the same time,the changes of gray matter density in the brain of SP patients were compared by the voxel—based morphometry(VBM).Based on above study,we exploring the clinical significance of abnormal spontaneous activity of local brain regions and changes of gray matter density,and aim to provide a reference for clinical early warning,diagnosis,treatment and efficacy monitoring of SP.Methods31 patients with definitely diagnosed schizophrenia and 30 healthy women were collected,Subjects that did not meet the requirements of data analysis were removed according to the entry criteria and the threshold of cephalic parameters.Finally,22 patients with schizophrenia and 26 healthy women were eventually enrolled in each group.The age and level of education of the two groups were matched.Before enrollment,the PANSS scale was scored,and the handedness were evaluated.Afterwards the 3.0 Tesla MRI scanner(GE Discovery 750)was sed for scanning to obtain rs-f MRI data.Then,based on the Matlab R2014 a platform,the DPARSFA module is used for data preprocessing,to obtain the Re Ho,ALFF and VBM diagrams of the two groups.Then,two independent sample t tests were performed on the two groups of data to obtain the t-value maps of Re Ho,ALFF and VBM.The threshold value of positive results was set to show positive brain regions for the next analyzing.Results1.Compared with the healthy control group,the regions with significantly decreased ALFF values in the schizophrenia group located in the left inferior frontal gyrus and the left angular gyrus,and no brain regions with significantly increased ALFF values were found.2.Compared with the healthy control group,the regions with significantly decreased Re Ho values in schizophrenia group located in the left superior frontal gyrus,left angular gyrus and right precuneus,and no brain regions with significantly increased Re Ho were found.3.Compared with the healthy control group,the regions with significantly reduced volume of gray matter in schizophrenia group located in the left superior frontal gyrus,right middle and inferior frontal gyrus,right frontal orbital and rectal gyrus,right inferior temporal gyrus,left precuneus,angular gyrus,right occipital lobe,head of caudate nucleus,the insula and a part of basal ganglia regions.the regions with significantly increased volume of gray matter in schizophrenia group included the left and right cerebellum posterior lobe.ConclusionCompared with the healthy control group,the gray matter volume of the Schizophrenia group decreased in the frontal lobe,angular gyrus and precuneus,which also with lower Re Ho value or ALFF value,which belongs to the Default Mode Network(DMN).These results indicate that the spontaneous activity of neurons in these brain regions is weakened and their consistency is reduced,and the function diminution of the patients’ DMN.The volume of gray matter was significantly reduced in multiple brain regions of the whole brain,indicating that the schizophrenic patients had more neurons missing in the whole brain.consequently,the conclusion provides some evidence of brain structure and function for the "glutamate hypothesis" and " disconnection hypothesis".Furthermore,we concluded that the brain network structure of schizophrenic patients is abnormal,and it is difficult to maintain stability.Although the treatment of the disease can compensate for its function,but its damage may not be restored.