Abstract
Cognitive impairments are core aspects of schizophrenia and are highly related to poor outcomes. However, the effect of therapy on cognitive impairments remains unsatisfactory as its biological mechanisms are not fully understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the disrupted intrinsic neural activity of the frontal areas and to further examine the functional connectivity of frontal areas related to cognitive impairments in schizophrenia. We collected brain imaging data using a 3T Siemens Prisma MRI system in 32 patients with schizophrenia and 34 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. The mean fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (mfALFF) in the frontal regions was calculated and analyzed to evaluate regional neural activity alterations in schizophrenia. Seed regions were generated from clusters showing significant changes in mfALFF in schizophrenia, and its resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) with other brain regions were estimated to detect possible aberrant rs-FC indicating cognitive impairments in schizophrenia. We found that mfALFF in the bilateral frontal cortices was increased in schizophrenia. mfALFF-based rs-FC revealed that decreased rs-FC between left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and left medial superior frontal gyrus (MFSG) was associated with poor delayed memory (r = 0.566, Bonferroni-corrected p = 0.012). These findings demonstrate increased neural activity in the frontal cortices in schizophrenia. FC analysis revealed a diminished rs-FC pattern between the left MFG and left MSFG that was associated with cognitive impairments. These findings have provided deeper insight into the alterations in brain function related to specific domains of cognitive impairment and may provide evidence for precise interventions for cognitive deficits in schizophrenia.
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We thank the volunteers for their participation and cooperation.
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This work was supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant Number 2018YFC1314302), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Numbers 81471358 and 81771450), Western Medicine Guide Project of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Science and Technology (Grant Number 14411969000), Shanghai Municipal Education Commission-Gaofeng Clinical Medicine Grant Support (Grant Number 20152530).
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Study design (Chen Zhang and Xing Tian), data collection (Lingfang Yu, Xinyu Fang, Fuyin Yang and Yan Chen), statistical analysis (Lingfang Yu and Lei Guo), drafting the manuscript work or revising it critically for intellectual content (Lingfang Yu, Yewei Wang, Dandan Wang, Zenan Wu, Ruimei Liu and Chen Zhang) and approval of final version to be published and agreement to be accountable for the integrity and accuracy of all aspects of the work (Lingfang Yu, Lei Guo, Xinyu Fang, Fuyin Yang, Yan Chen, Yewei Wang, Dandan Wang, Zenan Wu, Ruimei Liu, Xing Tian, Chen Zhang).
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Yu, L., Guo, L., Fang, X. et al. Altered brain activity in the bilateral frontal cortices and neural correlation with cognitive impairment in schizophrenia. Brain Imaging and Behavior 16, 415–423 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-021-00516-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-021-00516-6