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Hub-connected functional connectivity within social brain network weakens the association with real-life social network in schizophrenia patients

European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience volume 272, pages 1033–1043 (2022)Cite this article

Abstract

Hubs in the brain network are the regions with high centrality and are crucial in the network communication and information integration. Patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) exhibit wide range of abnormality in the hub regions and their connected functional connectivity (FC) at the whole-brain network level. Study of the hubs in the brain networks supporting complex social behavior (social brain network, SBN) would contribute to understand the social dysfunction in patients with SCZ. Forty-nine patients with SCZ and 27 healthy controls (HC) were recruited to undertake the resting-state magnetic resonance imaging scanning and completed a social network (SN) questionnaire. The resting-state SBN was constructed based on the automatic analysis results from the NeuroSynth. Our results showed that the left temporal lobe was the only hub of SBN, and its connected FCs strength was higher than the remaining FCs in both two groups. SCZ patients showed the lower association between the hub-connected FCs (compared to the FCs not connected to the hub regions) with the real-life SN characteristics. These results were replicated in another independent sample (30 SCZ and 28 HC). These preliminary findings suggested that the hub-connected FCs of SBN in SCZ patients exhibit the abnormality in predicting real-life SN characteristics.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by grants from the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission Grant (Z161100000216138), National Key Research and Development Programme (2016YFC0906402), Beijing Training Project for Leading Talents in S&T (Z151100000315020), and the CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology. All authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationship that could be constructed as a potential conflict of interests.

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Author notes

  1. Yi-jing Zhang and Ying Li contributed equally to the present study.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 16 Lincui Road, Beijing, 100101, China

    Yi-jing Zhang, Yi Wang & Raymond C. K. Chan

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Yi-jing Zhang, Yi Wang & Raymond C. K. Chan

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Beijing Children’s Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Centre for Children’s Health, Beijing, China

    Ying Li

  4. Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, 16 De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF, UK

    Yong-ming Wang

  5. Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

    Shuang-kun Wang, Yan-Tao Ma & Xin Yu

  6. Peking University Sixth Hospital, Peking University Institute of Mental Health, NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health (Peking University), National Clinical Research Centre for Mental Disorders (Peking University Sixth Hospital), Beijing, China

    Cheng-Cheng Pu & Shu-Zhe Zhou

  7. Department of Psychiatry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China

    Simon S. Y. Lui

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  1. Yi-jing Zhang
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Contributions

YJZ designed the study, collected the data in the replication sample, analyzed and interpreted the data, and wrote up the drafts of the manuscript. YL collected the main sample data, interpreted the findings and commented the draft critically. ZYY, YMW, SKW helped to collect the main sample data and interpreted the findings. CCP, SZZ, YTM helped to collect the replication sample data and interpreted the findings. YW, SSYL and XY interpreted the findings and commented the drafts critically. RCKC generated the idea, designed the study, interpreted the findings, and commented the draft critically.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Raymond C. K. Chan.

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Zhang, Yj., Li, Y., Wang, Ym. et al. Hub-connected functional connectivity within social brain network weakens the association with real-life social network in schizophrenia patients. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 272, 1033–1043 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-021-01344-x

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Keywords

  • Social brain network
  • Brain hub
  • Network analysis
  • Social function
  • Social network
  • Schizophrenia