Mapping alterations in the local synchrony of the cerebral cortex in schizophrenia

Abstract

Observations from different fields of research coincide in indicating that a defective gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) interneuron system could be among the primary factors accounting for the varied clinical expression of schizophrenia. GABA interneuron deficiency is locally expressed in the form of neural activity desynchronization. We mapped the functional anatomy of local synchrony in the cerebral cortex in schizophrenia using a novel functional connectivity MRI approach. Patients with schizophrenia showed weaker local functional connectivity (i.e., lower MRI signal synchrony) in a set of cerebral cortex areas largely coinciding with the synchronization effect of the GABA agonist alprazolam and the cortical areas showing higher density of parvalbumin and somatostatin GABA interneurons in humans. Our results provide detail of the functional anatomy of synchrony changes in the cerebral cortex in schizophrenia and suggest which elements of the interneuron system are affected. The information could ultimately be relevant in the search for specific treatments.

Graded changes in local functional connectivity of the cerebral cortex in young people with depression

“…To ensure that our results are consistent with previously illustrated anatomofunctional boundaries 34,41,46 , whole-brain maps were generated across the three distances for the healthy controls (Fig. 1).…”

“…Imaging data was transferred to a Unix-based platform that ran MATLAB Version 9.3 (The MathWorks Inc., Natick, USA) and Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) Version 12 v7487 (Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, London, UK). Preprocessing followed previously reported steps for IDAC analysis 41 . In brief, for each subject functional MRI images were slice-time corrected, realigned, and co-registered to their corresponding anatomical image with an a ne transformation.…”

Graded changes in local functional connectivity of the cerebral cortex in young people with depression

“…To ensure that our results are consistent with previously illustrated anatomo-functional boundaries (Macia et al ., 2018, Pujol et al ., 2019, Pujol et al ., 2023), whole-brain maps were generated across the three distances for the healthy controls (Figure 1). Consistent with previous effects, the visual association cortex demonstrated high connectivity across all local distance ranges.…”

“…Imaging data was transferred to a Unix-based platform that ran MATLAB Version 9.3 (The MathWorks Inc., Natick, USA) and Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) Version 12 v7487 (Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, London, UK). Preprocessing followed previously reported steps for IDAC analysis (Pujol et al ., 2023). In brief, for each subject functional MRI images were slice-time corrected, realigned, and co-registered to their corresponding anatomical image with an affine transformation.…”