State-related functional integration and functional segregation brain networks in schizophrenia

• Published in: Schizophrenia research Vol. 150; no. 2-3; pp. 450 - 458
• Main Authors: Yu, Qingbao, Sui, Jing, Kiehl, Kent A., Pearlson, Godfrey, Calhoun, Vince D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.11.2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Acoustic Stimulation; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Biological and medical sciences; Brain - blood supply; Brain - pathology; Brain graph; Brain Mapping; Brain state; Female; Humans; ICA; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Integration; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Neural Pathways - blood supply; Neural Pathways - pathology; Neuropsychological Tests; Oxygen - blood; Principal Component Analysis; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychoses; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia - pathology; Schizophrenia - physiopathology; Segregation; Young Adult; Brain state; Schizophrenia; Brain graph; Integration; Segregation; ICA; Psychosis; Human; Central nervous system; Encephalon
• ISSN: 0920-9964; 1573-2509; 1573-2509
• DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2013.09.016

Altered topological properties of brain connectivity networks have emerged as important features of schizophrenia. The aim of this study was to investigate how the state-related modulations to graph measures of functional integration and functional segregation brain networks are disrupted in schizophrenia. Firstly, resting state and auditory oddball discrimination (AOD) fMRI data of healthy controls (HCs) and schizophrenia patients (SZs) were decomposed into spatially independent components (ICs) by group independent component analysis (ICA). Then, weighted positive and negative functional integration (inter-component networks) and functional segregation (intra-component networks) brain networks were built in each subject. Subsequently, connectivity strength, clustering coefficient, and global efficiency of all brain networks were statistically compared between groups (HCs and SZs) in each state and between states (rest and AOD) within group. We found that graph measures of negative functional integration brain network and several positive functional segregation brain networks were altered in schizophrenia during AOD task. The metrics of positive functional integration brain network and one positive functional segregation brain network were higher during the resting state than during the AOD task only in HCs. These findings imply that state-related characteristics of both functional integration and functional segregation brain networks are impaired in schizophrenia which provides new insight into the altered brain performance in this brain disorder.