Factor analysis of the Chinese version of the Autism Spectrum Quotient 10 and its association with schizotypal traits in adolescents and young adults in Hong Kong.

BACKGROUND: There is evidence suggesting that autistic traits are associated with schizotypal traits. This study examined the factor structure of the Autism Spectrum Quotient 10 (AQ-10) and its associations with schizotypal traits (measured by the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief [SPQ-B]) in a cohort of Chinese adolescents and young adults. METHODS: Invitation letters, stratified by locations and housing types, were randomly sent to individuals aged 15 to 24 years for participation. Assessments were made using face-to-face or online interviews. Autistic traits were assessed using the Chinese version of the AQ-10. Schizotypal personality traits were assessed using the Chinese version of the 22-item SPQ-B. RESULTS: In total, 395 male and 536 female participants (mean age, 19.93 years) were recruited between July 2020 and May 2021. Exploratory factor analysis of the AQ-10 yielded three factors (theory of mind, task switching, and attention deficits) explaining 55.11% of the total variance. Autistic traits were positively correlated with schizotypal traits of disorganised features (r = 0.21, p < 0.001), interpersonal relationship deficits (r = 0.19, p < 0.001), and cognitive-perceptual deficits (r = 0.11, p = 0.001). CONCLUSION: In Chinese adolescents and young adults, autistic traits, especially task switching and attention deficits (compared with theory of mind) are more closely correlated with schizotypal personality traits. Disentangling the overlapping and diametrical structure of autistic traits and schizotypal traits may help understand their aetiologies, assessment, and interventions.

High-functioning autism patients share similar but more severe impairments in verbal theory of mind than schizophrenia patients.

BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests that autism and schizophrenia share similarities in genetic, neuropsychological and behavioural aspects. Although both disorders are associated with theory of mind (ToM) impairments, a few studies have directly compared ToM between autism patients and schizophrenia patients. This study aimed to investigate to what extent high-functioning autism patients and schizophrenia patients share and differ in ToM performance. METHODS: Thirty high-functioning autism patients, 30 schizophrenia patients and 30 healthy individuals were recruited. Participants were matched in age, gender and estimated intelligence quotient. The verbal-based Faux Pas Task and the visual-based Yoni Task were utilised to examine first- and higher-order, affective and cognitive ToM. The task/item difficulty of two paradigms was examined using mixed model analyses of variance (ANOVAs). Multiple ANOVAs and mixed model ANOVAs were used to examine group differences in ToM. RESULTS: The Faux Pas Task was more difficult than the Yoni Task. High-functioning autism patients showed more severely impaired verbal-based ToM in the Faux Pas Task, but shared similar visual-based ToM impairments in the Yoni Task with schizophrenia patients. CONCLUSIONS: The findings that individuals with high-functioning autism shared similar but more severe impairments in verbal ToM than individuals with schizophrenia support the autism-schizophrenia continuum. The finding that verbal-based but not visual-based ToM was more impaired in high-functioning autism patients than schizophrenia patients could be attributable to the varied task/item difficulty between the two paradigms.

Heritability and familiality of neurological soft signs: evidence from healthy twins, patients with schizophrenia and non-psychotic first-degree relatives.

BACKGROUND: Neurological soft signs (NSS) have long been considered potential endophenotypes for schizophrenia. However, few studies have investigated the heritability and familiality of NSS. The present study examined the heritability and familiality of NSS in healthy twins and patient-relative pairs. METHOD: The abridged version of the Cambridge Neurological Inventory was administered to 267 pairs of monozygotic twins, 124 pairs of dizygotic twins, and 75 pairs of patients with schizophrenia and their non-psychotic first-degree relatives. RESULTS: NSS were found to have moderate but significant heritability in the healthy twin sample. Moreover, patients with schizophrenia correlated closely with their first-degree relatives on NSS. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, the findings provide evidence on the heritability and familiality of NSS in the Han Chinese population.

Altered corticostriatal functional connectivity in individuals with high social anhedonia.

BACKGROUND: Dysregulation of the striatum and altered corticostriatal connectivity have been associated with psychotic disorders. Social anhedonia has been identified as a predictor for the development of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The aim of the present study was to examine corticostriatal functional connectivity in individuals with high social anhedonia. METHOD: Twenty-one participants with high social anhedonia score and 30 with low social anhedonia score measured by the Chinese version of the Revised Social Anhedonia Scale were recruited from university undergraduates (age 17-21 years) to undergo resting-state functional MRI scans. Six subdivisions of the striatum in each hemisphere were defined as seeds. Voxel-wise functional connectivity analyses were conducted between each seed and the whole brain voxels, followed by repeated-measures ANOVA for the group effect. RESULTS: Participants with high social anhedonia showed hyper-connectivity between the ventral striatum and the anterior cingulate cortex and the insula, and between the dorsal striatum and the motor cortex. Hypo-connectivity in participants with high social anhedonia was also observed between the ventral striatum and the posterior cingulate cortex. Partial correlation analyses further showed that the functional connectivity between the ventral striatum and the prefrontal cortex was associated with pleasure experience and emotional suppression. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that altered corticostriatal connectivity can be found in participants with high levels of social anhedonia. Since social anhedonia has been considered a predictor for schizophrenia spectrum disorders, our results may provide novel evidence on the early changes in brain functional connectivity in at-risk individuals.

The nature of anhedonia and avolition in patients with first-episode schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Patients with schizophrenia have intact ability to experience emotion, but empirical evidence suggests that they fail to translate emotional salience into effortful behaviour. Previous research in patients with chronic schizophrenia suggests that working memory is important in integrating emotion and behaviour. This study aimed to examine avolition and anhedonia in patients with first-episode schizophrenia and clarify the role of working memory in emotion-behaviour coupling. METHOD: We recruited 72 participants with first-episode schizophrenia and 61 healthy controls, and used a validated emotion-inducing behavioural paradigm to measure participants' affective experiences and how experienced emotion coupled with behaviour. Participants were given the opportunity to expend effort to increase or decrease their exposure to emotion-inducing photographs. Participants with schizophrenia having poor working memory were compared with those with intact working memory in their liking and emotion-behaviour coupling. RESULTS: Patients with first-episode schizophrenia experienced intact 'in-the-moment' emotion, but their emotion was less predictive of the effort expended, compared with controls. The emotion-behaviour coupling was significantly weaker in patients with schizophrenia with poor working memory than in those with intact working memory. However, compared with controls, patients with intact working also showed substantial emotion-behaviour decoupling. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide strong evidence for emotion-behaviour decoupling in first-episode schizophrenia. Although working memory deficits contribute to defective translation of liking into effortful behaviour, schizophrenia alone affects emotion-behaviour coupling.

Patients with bipolar disorders share similar but attenuated prospective memory impairments with patients with schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Prospective memory (PM) refers to the ability to remember to carry out an intended action in the future. PM is consistently found to be impaired in individuals with schizophrenia. Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia may represent conditions along a continuum, and share similar neurocognitive and genetic architecture. This study aimed to compare the nature and extent of PM impairment in individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. METHOD: Participants were 38 out-patients with schizophrenia and 40 out-patients with bipolar disorder in an early psychosis intervention programme, and 37 healthy controls. Time-, event- and activity-based PMs were assessed using a dual-task laboratory paradigm. Self-reported PM performance was gauged using the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), with intelligence quotient (IQ) and education included as covariates, was used to examine group difference on various types of PM. Repeated measures of ANCOVA were used to examine the group × PM type interaction effect. Correspondence between laboratory and self-reported PM measures was examined using correlational analysis. RESULTS: The group × PM type interaction effect was not significant, but the main effect of group was significant. Patients with schizophrenia and patients with bipolar disorder both performed more poorly than healthy participants in PM. The two clinical groups did not significantly differ in PM. Laboratory and self-reported PM measures did not correlate significantly with each other. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with bipolar disorder shared a similar PM impairment with those with schizophrenia. Findings of this study extended the similarity in neurocognitive impairments between the two psychiatric disorders to PM.

ABCG2 polymorphism is associated with the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol response to rosuvastatin.

The ATP-binding cassette G2 (ABCG2) c.421C>A (rs2231142) polymorphism influences the pharmacokinetics of rosuvastatin. We examined whether this polymorphism influences the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C)-lowering efficacy of the drug. In 305 Chinese patients with hypercholesterolemia who were treated with rosuvastatin at a dosage of 10 mg daily, the c.421A variant was found to be significantly associated with greater reduction in LDL-C level, in a gene-dose-dependent manner. As compared with subjects with the c.421CC genotype, those with the c.421AA genotype showed a 6.9% greater reduction in LDL-C level, which would be equivalent to the effect obtained by doubling the dose of rosuvastatin.

Differential susceptibility of naïve and activated human gammadelta T cells to activation-induced cell death by T-cell receptor cross-linking.

BACKGROUND: T cells undergo activation-induced cell death (AICD) through repeated stimulation of their T cell receptors (TCRs). Activated human gammadelta T cells were found to die by apoptosis when their TCRs were cross-linked by antibodies, whereas naïve gammadelta T cells freshly isolated from blood did not. Therefore, we investigated the factors that could contribute to this differential susceptibility. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Gammadelta T cells were isolated from the peripheral blood of healthy human volunteers and their TCRs were cross-linked either directly (naïve) or after an in vitro incubation of 11 days (activated). Their cell cycle profiles, cytokine, Fas and FasL mRNA messages, and surface expression of Fas and FasL were determined. RESULTS: The naïve cells were cycling while the activated T cells exited from the G1 to subG1 phase upon TCR cross-linking. IL-2 and IL-4 mRNAs and surface expression of FasL were detected only in activated T cells in the time period examined. In addition, cFLIP mRNA expression was found only in naïve gammadelta T cells and activated T cells treated with cyclosporin A (CsA), which inhibited AICD in the activated T cells. CsA also downregulated the surface expression of FasL in activated T cells. CONCLUSIONS: The differential expression of cytokines, apoptotic inducers and inhibitors provide the basis for the differential susceptibility of naïve and activated gammadelta T cells to AICD upon TCR cross-linking. This contributes to our understanding of the regulation and maintenance of gammadelta T-cell homeostasis, which would be important in many infectious as well as autoimmune diseases, where gammadelta T cells have been implicated.

Growth of infants during the first 18 months of life in urban and rural areas of southern China.

OBJECTIVE: Observe the growth pattern of infants from birth to 18 months. METHODOLOGY: A prospective study was conducted from 1994 to 1996 in urban and township-rural areas of Guangdong Province, southern China, recruiting 568 and 257 newborn infants, respectively. Anthropometric data was collected at birth, 1.5, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, and 18 months. RESULTS: The urban infants at birth had Z-scores of weight for age (WAZ), height for age (HAZ) and weight for height (WHZ) below the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) median (P < 0.01). However, from 1.5 to 4 months, the WAZ and WHZ scores were above (P < 0.01), but by 7 months fell and remained at - 0.7 to - 0.8 SD below the NCHS median (P < 0.01). HAZ scores improved after birth, were at the NCHS median to 8 months (P = NS), and then decreased to 0.2-0.4 SD below the NCHS median (P < 0.01). Compared with the urban infants, the township-rural infants were lighter and shorter throughout the first 18 months of life, and from 8 months of age, were - 1 SD or more below the NCHS median. CONCLUSIONS: Growth retardation was found in this sample of Chinese infants. The magnitude of growth retardation was greater for infants in the township-rural area compared with those in the urban area.

Fat intake in Hong Kong Chinese children.

The people of Hong Kong are experiencing a transition in dietary practices and lifestyle that can be observed in the fat intakes of Hong Kong children as compared with those of their counterparts on mainland China. The studies described here include 1) a longitudinal and observational dietary survey beginning with a cohort of 174 newborns and concluding with 124 children at age 7 y; 2) a biochemical study of serum lipids in relation to dietary fat intake at age 7 y; 3) a chemical fatty acid analysis and comparison of duplicate meals collected from 20 Hong Kong and 20 mainland Chinese children at age 7 y; 4) a dietary assessment of 52 lactoovovegetarian children aged 4-14 y; and 5) a comparison of the growth of all subjects with US National Center for Health Statistics standards. About 30% of the total daily energy intake of Hong Kong Chinese children aged 1-7 y was contributed by fat-much more than that in the traditional Chinese diet. Growth of the children was not impaired, including that of children on the mainland and of those lactoovovegetarians in Hong Kong whose fat intakes were lower. Mean serum cholesterol of Hong Kong Chinese children at age 7 y was 4.59 mmol/L, significantly higher than that of their counterparts on the mainland, 4.16 mmol/L. Foods consumed in Hong Kong had a significantly lower ratio of 18:2 to 14:0. Nutritional deficiency was uncommon. Chinese children in Hong Kong had a dietary fat intake that was both quantitatively and qualitatively different from the traditional Chinese diet.

Predicting stature from knee height in Chinese elderly subjects.

The main aim of this study was to validate the use of the Caucasian-based knee height equations for predicting stature of Chinese elderly subjects and to compare the predicted height to those estimated by equations derived from elderly subjects of Chinese origin. The study was performed by a survey by measurement of convenience samples. Twenty-one women and 26 men were recruited to validate the use of the Caucasian-based equations. The Chinese-based predictive equations were derived from 164 women and 89 men. The sample included ambulatory elderly subjects of Chinese origin, 60 years of age or older. These subjects were without spinal curvature and able to stand erect. Measurements were taken for height by a standard hospital scale. Calipers was used to measure knee height while the subject was in the sitting position. The measured stature and that predicted by the Caucasian-based equations were significantly different in Chinese elderly women but not in men. New regression models are being developed for the elderly Chinese population in Hong Kong. The relationship between stature, knee height and age appears to be ethnicity- and gender-dependent. While stature of elderly Chinese men can be estimated by either the Caucasian-based or Chinese-based equation, the regression model developed in the present study will better estimate the stature in elderly Chinese women.

Resting metabolic rate and thermic effects of a sucrose-sweetened soft drink during the menstrual cycle in young Chinese women.

The resting metabolic rate (RMR) and thermic effects (TEF) of a sucrose-sweetened soft drink in a group (n = 19) of ovulating young Chinese women were determined by indirect calorimetry in the midfollicular and midluteal phases of the menstrual cycle. Urinary luteinizing hormone surge was used to confirm ovulation. The RMR was measured twice in each phase and found to be similar (F(1,18) = 0.863) across the follicular (5018 kJ/24 h) and the luteal (5098 kJ/24 h) phases. Within each phase and on separate days, subjects were given water (280 mL) or sucrose-sweetened soft drink (539 kJ). Soft drink, but not water, consumption increased energy expenditure over a period of 45 min. Compared with the follicular phase, a small but significant increase in TEF (kJ/45 min) was observed in the luteal phase (t = 2.434, p < 0.05). Energy expenditure after drinking the soft drink, however, was similar in the two phases. RMR was positively correlated with TEF (r = 0.613, p < 0.01) and net TEF (r = 0.648, p < 0.005) in the luteal but not the follicular phase. In ovulating women, the thermic effect of sucrose is influenced by the phase of the menstrual cycle.

Menstrual cycle and voluntary food intake in young Chinese women.

The effect of menstrual cycle phase on energy and macronutrients intakes was assessed in 20 university students (21.2+/-1.3 years) all of whom experienced ovulatory cycle as documented by a surge in urinary luteinizing hormone. Three-day food intake records, which consisted of one weekend day, were kept in both mid-follicular and mid-luteal phases. Mean daily energy intake was higher (p=0.02) in the luteal phase (6978+/-1847 kJ) than in the follicular phase (6095+/-1174 kJ). Intakes of carbohydrate and fat were also significantly elevated (by 15 and 21%, respectively) in the luteal phase. The menstrual phase effect on energy intake was attributed to the substantially higher intakes from Thursday through Sunday in the luteal phase. The proportion of energy from the three macronutrients was not affected by menstrual phase nor day of the week.

Relationship between long-term calcium intake and bone mineral content of children aged from birth to 5 years.

This study evaluated Ca intake in Hong Kong Chinese children and examined the association between long-term Ca intake and bone mineral content (BMC) in children. Longitudinal dietary intake from birth to 5 years was obtained in 128 children (sixty-seven boys, sixty-one girls). Ca intakes were evaluated by dietary history and cross-checked with food frequency and 24 h recall. At age 5 years BMC was determined at the one-third distal radius of the right arm using single-photon absorptiometry. The mean Ca intake of 133 children at 5 years was 546 (SD 325) mg/d. Milk was the chief source of Ca (43.5%). From birth to 5 years, 90% of the children had been taking milk regularly. The mean BMC and bone width (BW) of these children were 0.317 (SD 0.042) g/cm and 0.756 (SD 0.074) cm respectively. BMC was not correlated with current intakes of Ca, energy and protein but was positively correlated with weight (r 0.57), height (r 0.47) and BW (r 0.66). However, cumulative Ca intake throughout the past 5 years showed significant correlation with BMC (r 0.235, P = 0.0133). The significant correlation remained even after weight, height, BW, sex, and cumulative intakes of energy and protein were adjusted in multiple regression analysis (r 0.248, P = 0.0107). Moreover, using principal component analysis, Ca intake during the 2nd year of life had the strongest correlation with BMC at 5 years (r 0.240, P = 0.02). Ca intake of Hong Kong Chinese children was higher than the RDA of the Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization (1962) and achieved 66% of the current US recommendation (National Research Council, 1989). The increased regular milk consumption reflects a significant change in dietary habits of the younger generation. Children with a habitually higher Ca intake throughout the past 5 years, particularly in the 2nd year, were found to have higher BMC.