| Background Schizophrenia is a brain functional disease with complex etiology,cognitive impairment is one of the core symptoms,and it is also the most important deterrent factor affecting patients’ social return.The relationship between cognitive deficits and brain function in patients with schizophrenia is not clear.Functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI)provides technical support for the non-invasive study of brain functional changes.This study comprehensively evaluated the cognitive status of schizophrenia and examined its functional magnetic resonance imaging,investigating the association between the ALFF,functional connectivity(FC)and cognitive function.It provides reference for further understanding of the cognitive deficits and the basis of brain function of schizophrenia.Objective To explore the cognitive deficits and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation,functional connectivity of brain functional magnetic resonance in patients with schizophrenia.Methods A total of 87 schizophrenic patients who met the diagnostic criteria of American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV and 89 normal controls matched by gender,age,handedness and education years were included.30 patients with schizophrenia and 30 normal controls matched with gender,age,handedness and education years from the above participants were scanning for fMRI.The symptom severity of the patients was assessed by Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale(PANSS);the cognitive function of patients was assessed by MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery(MCCB).The general information and the comparison of cognitive functions were analyzed by SPSS 20.0;the principal component analysis(PCA)was analyzed by SIMCA 14.1;the fMRI images were processed and extracted by Data Processing and Analysis for Brain Imaging(DPABI)software and Resting-State fMRI Data Analysis Toolkit(REST)toolkit on the Matlab 2013 b platform.Results The results of the cognitive function comparison between the schizophrenia group and the normal control group showed that the cognitive function of the schizophrenia patients was worse than that of the normal control group,and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.001).The results of principal component analysis show that the cognitive function measured by symbol coding,trail making test A,Stroop and brief visuospatial memory test are the main dimensions of cognitive impairment in patients with schizophrenia,the Variable Importance for the Projection(VIP)were 1.52,1.34,1.24,1.08(screening criterion of VIP was more than 1).Brain image analysis shows that there are increased intrinsic brain activity of the left putamen(t=5.47)and right caudate nucleus(t=6.23)in patients with schizophrenia(GRF correction,voxel P<0.001,cluster P<0.01).Correlation analysis showed that the ALFF values of the right caudate nucleus were positively correlated with the total score of brief visuospatial memory test-revised(r=0.40,P=0.029),there was no significant correlation with other cognitive test scores.The connections between the right caudate nucleus and the left anterior cingulate gyrus(t=-6.41),the right middle frontal gyrus(t=-4.65),the left middle frontal gyrus(t=-5.78)were decreased while the right caudate nucleus was regarded as the region of interest(GRF correction,voxel P<0.001,cluster P<0.01).The connections between the left putamen and the bilateral thalamus(t=-4.47,t=-4.84),the right anterior cingulate gyrus(t=-5.73)were decreased while regarding the left putamen as the region of interest,and the connection between the left putamen and the left postcentral gyrus was increased(t=4.55)(GRF correction,voxel P<0.005,cluster P<0.05).The connection between the right caudate nucleus and the left middle frontal gyrus were negatively correlated with category fluency-animal naming score(r=-0.37,P=0.043),no correlation was found between other functional connection strength and cognitive score.Conclusion The speed of information processing,conversion inhibition and visual learning and memory ability are the main aspects of cognitive deficits in patients with schizophrenia.There are abnormal intrinsic brain activities of the right caudate nucleus,left putamen and its network;the abnormalities of caudate nucleus and its brain network may be affected the visual learning and memory ability,speed of information processing in patients with schizophrenia. |
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