ABSTRACT
Objective:To explore the abnormalities of efficiency in resting state functional brain network in patients with paranoid schizophrenia and the correlations between efficiencies and clinical symptoms.Methods:A total of 73 patients with schizophrenia (SZ group) met with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-Ⅳ) criteria for schizophrenia and 70 healthy controls (HC group) were included .All subjects were checked by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and positive and negative syndrome scale(PANSS) were used to assess the symptoms.Abnormalities of global and local efficiency of brain regions in brain functional network were analyzed by graph theory.Pearson correlation was used to analyze the correlation between the abnormal global efficiency and local efficiency of brain regions of SZ group and PANSS.SPSS 20.0 software was used for dependent-sample t-test, ANOVA test and Pearson correlation analysis. Results:Compared with the HC group, SZ group showed increased global efficiency in bilateral thalamus(left: 0.26±0.06, 0.28±0.04, t=2.03, P=0.044.right: 0.26±0.06, 0.28±0.05, t=2.08, P=0.040), right orbital part of middle frontal gyrus(0.21±0.04, 0.23±0.05, t=2.25, P=0.026), cerebellar lobule Ⅸ(0.19±0.06, 0.21±0.05, t=2.56, P=0.011) and vermis Ⅲ(0.15±0.08, 0.19±0.07, t=3.27, P=0.001), while decreased global efficiency in bilateral parahippocampal gyrus(left: 0.25±0.05, 0.22±0.05, t=-3.34, P=0.001.right: 0.27±0.04, 0.23±0.05, t=-4.96, P=0.000), superior occipital gyrus(left: 0.27±0.03, 0.26±0.03, t=-2.70, P=0.008.right: 0.27±0.02, 0.26±0.03, t=-2.73, P=0.007), superior parietal gyrus(left: 0.27±0.03, 0.26±0.05, t=-2.63, P=0.010.right: 0.27±0.03, 0.25±0.05, t=-2.76, P=0.007), paracentral lobule(left: 0.28±0.03, 0.26±0.07, t=-2.47, P=0.015.right: 0.28±0.04, 0.25±0.07, t=-3.06, P=0.003), left precental gyrus(0.28±0.04, 0.27±0.04, t=-1.98, P=0.049), left cuneus(0.26±0.04, 0.25±0.04, t=-2.08, P=0.039), left lingual gyrus(0.29±0.03, 0.28±0.03, t=-2.28, P=0.024), left middle occipital gyrus(0.29±0.03, 0.28±0.03; t=-2.74, P=0.007), left middle temporal gyrus(0.28±0.03, 0.26±0.03, t=-2.73, P=0.007), temporal pole in left middle temporal gyrus(0.20±0.06, 0.18±0.06, t=-2.59, P=0.011) and right hippocampus(0.27±0.04, 0.26±0.06, t=-2.05, P=0.042).Compared with the HC group, SZ group showed increased local efficiency in bilateral caudate nucleus(left: 0.33±0.06, 0.35±0.05, t=2.54, P=0.012.right: 0.33±0.07, 0.35±0.04, t=2.77, P=0.007) and left superior occipital gyrus(0.39±0.03, 0.40±0.02, t=2.17, P=0.031), while decreased local efficiency in bilateral parahippocampal gyrus(left: 0.35±0.04, 0.32±0.07, t=-3.16, P=0.002.right: 0.34±0.04, 0.32±0.07, t=-2.91, P=0.004), left supplementary motor area(0.36±0.02, 0.35±0.05, t=-2.01, P=0.047), left inferior parietal but supramarginal and angular gyrus(0.35±0.03, 0.34±0.05, t=-2.65, P=0.009), left cerebellar crus Ⅱ(0.37±0.03, 0.36±0.04, t=-2.01, P=0.046), lobule ⅦB(0.37±0.03, 0.35±0.07, t=-1.98, P=0.049), right posterior cingulate gyrus(0.36±0.04, 0.34±0.07, t=-2.07, P=0.041), right superior parietal gyrus(0.37±0.03, 0.36±0.05, t=-2.19, P=0.031), right precuneus(0.36±0.02, 0.35±0.04, t=-2.36, P=0.020), right paracentral lobule(0.37±0.02, 0.36±0.06, t=-2.07, P=0.041) and right temporal pole in middle temporal gyrus(0.33±0.08, 0.30±0.09, t=-2.09, P=0.038).The global efficiency of bilateral paracentral lobule and left temporal pole in middle temporal gyrus in SZ group were negatively correlated with the negative scale scores( r=-0.25, -0.25, -0.26, all P<0.05).The global efficiency of right hippocampus in SZ group was positively correlated with total scores of PANSS( r=0.23, P=0.049).The global efficiency of left middle temporal gyrus in SZ group was negatively correlated with total scores of PANSS( r=-0.23, P=0.049).The local efficiency of right paracentral lobule in SZ group was negatively correlated with the positive scale scores( r=-0.24, P=0.038). Conclusion:The brain networks of patients with first-episode paranoid schizophrenia may have regional dysfunction in the transmission efficiency and fault-tolerant ability of resting state brain functional network, and the abnormalities of efficiency may be associated with the severity of psychiatric symptoms in several brain regions.