Whole-brain Functional Connectivity Correlates of Brain Structural Aging in Adult Schizophrenia Patients Compared to Healthy Controls
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Introduction Age-related changes of brain functional connectivity, in contrast to brain structure, are understudied in schizophrenia. Importantly, patients with schizophrenia demonstrate an increased difference between the brain-predicted age and chronological age indicating that brain structural aging may be accelerated in this mental disorder (Constantinides et al. Mol Psychiatry 2023; 28 1201-1209). Research on functional connectivity correlates of this process seems to be fruitful. Objectives We aimed to search for the brain regions whose resting-state whole-brain functional connectivity is differently associated with brain-predicted age in schizophrenia patients compared to healthy controls. Methods Eighty-three male patients with schizophrenia (age range 17.3 – 52.3; mean age 32.1 ± 10.5) and eighty-seven male healthy individuals (age range 18.3 – 53.6; mean age 31.7 ± 10.0) underwent structural MRI and resting-state fMRI (Philips Ingenia 3T scanner). Brain-predicted age was individually estimated using a model trained on independent data based on 68 measures of cortical thickness and surface area, 7 subcortical volumes, lateral ventricular volumes, and total intracranial volume, all derived from T1-weighted MRI scans (Han et al. Mol Psychiatry 2021; 26 5124-39). The associations between the brain-predicted age and the whole-brain global correlation (GCOR) were compared between groups; t-contrasts were calculated (one-way ANCOVA covariate interaction via CONN; RRID:SCR_009550; www.nitrc.org/projects/conn ). The chronological age was a covariate of no interest. Results Schizophrenia patients had a higher difference between brain-predicted age and chronological age (T(168) = 2.1; p = .036; Cohen’s d = 0.32; 95% CI 0.02-0.63). Greater brain-predicted age in schizophrenia patients, compared to controls, was associated with lower functional connectivity of a region in the right Heschl’s gyrus, planum temporale, as well as central opercular and insular cortex with the rest of the brain (p < .001 voxelwise, p[FDR] < .05 clusterwise; Figure 1). Image: Conclusions Our results coincide with earlier findings on accelerated brain structural aging in schizophrenia. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first to indicate that this process is coupled with a decline of the whole-brain functional connectivity of a region located in the right temporal, insular, and parietal cortices, and this effect is not driven by chronological age. Further studies are needed to clarify the clinical and cognitive correlates of this decline of functional connectivity. The study was supported by RSF grant project 22-25-00706. Disclosure of Interest None Declared
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".