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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Neurol.
Sec. Applied Neuroimaging
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1445599

Static and temporal dynamic changes of intrinsic brain activity in early-onset and adult-onset Schizophrenia: A fMRI study of interaction effects

Provisionally accepted
Jingli Chen Jingli Chen 1,2,3Yarui Wei Yarui Wei 1,2Kangkang Xue Kangkang Xue 1,2Xinyu Gao Xinyu Gao 1,2Mengzhe Zhang Mengzhe Zhang 1,2Shaoqiang Han Shaoqiang Han 1,2Baohong Wen Baohong Wen 1,2Guangyu Wu Guangyu Wu 3*Jingliang Cheng Jingliang Cheng 1,2*
  • 1 Department of Radiotherapy, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
  • 2 Laboratory for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Molecular Imaging of Henan Province, Zhengzhou 450052, China, Zhengzhou, China
  • 3 Department of Radiology, Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Schizophrenia is characterized by altered static and dynamic spontaneous brain activity. However, the conclusions regarding this are inconsistent. Evidence has revealed that this inconsistency could be due to mixed effects of age of onset.We enrolled 66/84 drug-naïve first-episode patients with early-onset/adult-onset schizophrenia (EOS/AOS) and matched normal controls (NCs) (46 adolescents, 73 adults), undergoing resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Two-way ANOVA was used to determine the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and dynamic ALFF (dALFF) among the four groups.Result: Compared to NCs, EOS had a higher ALFF in inferior frontal gyrus (bilateral triangular part (IFG-tri), left opercular part (IFG-oper), left orbital part (IFG-orb), and left middle frontal gyrus (MFG). The AOS had a lower ALFF in left IFG-tri, IFG-oper, and lower dALFF in left IFG-tri. Compared to AOS, EOS had a higher ALFF in the left IFG-orb, and MFG, and higher dALFF in IFG-tri. Adult NCs had higher ALFF and dALFF in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) than adolescent NCs. The main effects of diagnosis were found in the PFC, medial temporal structures, cerebrum, visual and sensorimotor networks, The main effects of age were found in the visual and motor networks of ALFF and PFC of dALFF. Conclusions: Our findings unveil the static and dynamic neural activity mechanisms involved in the interaction between disorder and age in schizophrenia. Our results underscore age-related abnormalities in the neural activity of the PFC, shedding new light on the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the development of schizophrenia. This insight may offer valuable perspectives for the specific treatment of EOS in clinical settings.

    Keywords: amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation1, dynamic intrinsic brain activity2, compensatory effect3, EOS4, AOS5

    Received: 10 Jun 2024; Accepted: 28 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Chen, Wei, Xue, Gao, Zhang, Han, Wen, Wu and Cheng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Guangyu Wu, Department of Radiology, Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200000, China
    Jingliang Cheng, Department of Radiotherapy, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China

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