Exploring the role of hub and network dysfunction in brain connectomes of schizophrenia using functional magnetic resonance imaging

Yee-Lam E Chan; Shih-Jen Tsai; Yijuang Chern; Albert C Yang

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1305359

Exploring the role of hub and network dysfunction in brain connectomes of schizophrenia using functional magnetic resonance imaging

Front Psychiatry. 2024 Jan 8:14:1305359. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1305359. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yee-Lam E Chan^{1

2}, Shih-Jen Tsai^{3

4}, Yijuang Chern^{5

6}, Albert C Yang^{7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Doctoral Degree Program of Translational Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University and Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
² Department of Psychiatry, Cheng Hsin General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
³ Department of Psychiatry, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁴ Division of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁵ Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁶ Institute of Neuroscience, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁷ Institute of Brain Science/Digital Medicine Center, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁸ Department of Medical Research, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.

Abstract

Introduction: Pathophysiological etiology of schizophrenia remains unclear due to the heterogeneous nature of its biological and clinical manifestations. Dysfunctional communication among large-scale brain networks and hub nodes have been reported. In this study, an exploratory approach was adopted to evaluate the dysfunctional connectome of brain in schizophrenia.

Methods: Two hundred adult individuals with schizophrenia and 200 healthy controls were recruited from Taipei Veterans General Hospital. All subjects received functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning. Functional connectivity (FC) between parcellated brain regions were obtained. Pair-wise brain regions with significantly different functional connectivity among the two groups were identified and further analyzed for their concurrent ratio of connectomic differences with another solitary brain region (single-FC dysfunction) or dynamically interconnected brain network (network-FC dysfunction).

Results: The right thalamus had the highest number of significantly different pair-wise functional connectivity between schizophrenia and control groups, followed by the left thalamus and the right middle frontal gyrus. For individual brain regions, dysfunctional single-FCs and network-FCs could be found concurrently. Dysfunctional single-FCs distributed extensively in the whole brain of schizophrenia patients, but overlapped in similar groups of brain nodes. A dysfunctional module could be formed, with thalamus being the key dysfunctional hub.

Discussion: The thalamus can be a critical hub in the brain that its dysfunctional connectome with other brain regions is significant in schizophrenia patients. Interconnections between dysfunctional FCs for individual brain regions may provide future guide to identify critical brain pathology associated with schizophrenia.

Keywords: endophenotypes; functional magnetic resonance imaging; hub; network; schizophrenia.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. ACY and S-JT were supported by Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of Taiwan (Grant MOST 110-2628-B-A49A-509, MOST 110-2321-B-A49A-502, and MOST 110-2634-F-075-001). ACY was also supported by Mt. Jade Young Scholarship Award from Ministry of Education, Taiwan as well as Brain Research Center, National Yang-Ming University and the Ministry of Education (Aim for the Top University Plan), Taipei, Taiwan. S-JT was also supported by grant from Taipei Veterans General Hospital (VTA110-V1-4-1 and VTA111-V1-6-2). YC was supported by grant from Academia Sinica (AS-VTA-110-04 and AS-VTA-111-12). Y-LEC was supported by Translational Medical Research Program from Academia Sinica (AS-TM-109-02-02).