TY - JOUR
T1 - Structural network disorganization in subjects at clinical high risk for psychosis
AU - Schmidt, André
AU - Crossley , Nicolas A.
AU - Harrisberger, Fabienne
AU - Smieskova, Renata
AU - Lenz, Claudia
AU - Riecher-Rossler, Anita
AU - Lang, Undine E
AU - McGuire, Philip
AU - Fusar-Poli, Paolo
AU - Borgwardt, Stefan
PY - 2016/8/1
Y1 - 2016/8/1
N2 - Previous network studies in chronic schizophrenia patients revealed impaired structural organization of the brain’s rich-club members, a set of highly interconnected hub regions that play an important integrative role for global brain communication. Moreover, impaired rich-club connectivity has also been found in unaffected siblings of schizophrenia patients, suggesting that abnormal rich-club connectivity is related to familiar, possibly reflecting genetic, vulnerability for schizophrenia. However, no study has yet investigated whether structural rich-club organization is also impaired in individuals with a clinical risk syndrome for psychosis. Diffusion tensor imaging and probabilistic tractography was used to construct structural whole-brain networks in 24 healthy controls and 24 subjects with an at-risk mental state (ARMS). Graph theory was applied to quantify the structural rich-club organization and global network properties. ARMS subjects revealed a significantly altered structural rich-club organization compared with the control group. The disruption of rich-club organization was associated with the severity of negative psychotic symptoms and led to an elevated level of modularity in ARMS subjects. This study shows that abnormal structural rich-club organization is already evident in clinical high-risk subjects for psychosis and further demonstrates the impact of rich-club disorganization on global network communication. Together with previous evidence in chronic schizophrenia patients and unaffected siblings, our findings suggest that abnormal structural rich-club organization may reflect an endophenotypic marker of psychosis.
AB - Previous network studies in chronic schizophrenia patients revealed impaired structural organization of the brain’s rich-club members, a set of highly interconnected hub regions that play an important integrative role for global brain communication. Moreover, impaired rich-club connectivity has also been found in unaffected siblings of schizophrenia patients, suggesting that abnormal rich-club connectivity is related to familiar, possibly reflecting genetic, vulnerability for schizophrenia. However, no study has yet investigated whether structural rich-club organization is also impaired in individuals with a clinical risk syndrome for psychosis. Diffusion tensor imaging and probabilistic tractography was used to construct structural whole-brain networks in 24 healthy controls and 24 subjects with an at-risk mental state (ARMS). Graph theory was applied to quantify the structural rich-club organization and global network properties. ARMS subjects revealed a significantly altered structural rich-club organization compared with the control group. The disruption of rich-club organization was associated with the severity of negative psychotic symptoms and led to an elevated level of modularity in ARMS subjects. This study shows that abnormal structural rich-club organization is already evident in clinical high-risk subjects for psychosis and further demonstrates the impact of rich-club disorganization on global network communication. Together with previous evidence in chronic schizophrenia patients and unaffected siblings, our findings suggest that abnormal structural rich-club organization may reflect an endophenotypic marker of psychosis.
KW - PSYCHOSIS
KW - CLINICAL HIGH-RISK
KW - STRUCTURAL CONNECTIVITY
KW - NETWORK
KW - RICH-CLUB
KW - Graph theory
U2 - 10.1093/schbul/sbw110
DO - 10.1093/schbul/sbw110
M3 - Article
SN - 0586-7614
VL - 43
SP - 583
EP - 591
JO - Schizophrenia Bulletin
JF - Schizophrenia Bulletin
IS - 3
ER -