Biomedical Research

Objective: To study the characteristics of the multimodal functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) of schizophrenia patients with initial negative symptom.

Methods: From January 2014 to January 2016, 30 cases of schizophrenia patients with the initial negative symptom and 30 cases of schizophrenia patients with the initial positive symptom were involved in our study. Besides, other 30 cases were matched into the healthy control based on the gender, age and education level. The 3D structure Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data and functional MRI data of all patients were collected. The voxel-based morphometry was used to analyse different brain regions in structure MRI data among those three groups. In addition, we analysed the correlation between all functions of the whole brain in the resting state and different brain regions.

Results: The volume of the gray matter in the right dorsolateral prefrontal lobe of the patients with initial negative symptom was significantly higher than that of patients with initial positive symptom. Moreover, in the control group, the whole brain’s functional connectivity was decreased in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex under a resting state. The difference was mainly on functional connectivity between the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex-right medial prefrontal cortex and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex-right caudate nucleus. The Z value of right medial prefrontal cortex in the negative symptom group was significantly lower than those of other two groups. The right caudate nucleus Z value was significantly higher than those of other two groups. When the N-back working memory task was given, the different brain regions in activations among the three groups were the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, medial prefrontal cortex/anterior cingulated cortex and posterior cingulated cortex, the inhibition degree against the medial prefrontal cortex/anterior cingulated cortex and posterior cingulated cortex of patients with the initial negative symptom as primary type was significantly decreased and the dorsolateral prefrontal activation was significantly increased.

Conclusion: It has a significant value to diagnose and identify the schizophrenia with the initial negative symptom through the characteristics of the multimodal fMRI.

Author(s): Ruiyu Huang, Hui'an Li, Lizhe Sun, Baogang Xu, Xingzhi Ma
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