Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T22:34:22.222Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Resting-state thalamic dysconnectivity in schizophrenia and relationships with symptoms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2018

J. Ferri
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA San Francisco VA Health Care System, San Francisco, CA, USA
J. M. Ford
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA San Francisco VA Health Care System, San Francisco, CA, USA
B. J. Roach
Affiliation:
San Francisco VA Health Care System, San Francisco, CA, USA
J. A. Turner
Affiliation:
The Mind Research Network, Albuquerque, NM, USA
T. G. van Erp
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
J. Voyvodic
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Duke University, Raleigh-Durham, NC, USA
A. Preda
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
A. Belger
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
J. Bustillo
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
D. O'Leary
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
B. A. Mueller
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
K. O. Lim
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
S. C. McEwen
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
V. D. Calhoun
Affiliation:
The Mind Research Network, Albuquerque, NM, USA Department of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
M. Diaz
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Duke University, Raleigh-Durham, NC, USA
G. Glover
Affiliation:
Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
D. Greve
Affiliation:
Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
C. G. Wible
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA VA Boston Healthcare System, Brockton, MA, USA
J. G. Vaidya
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
S. G. Potkin
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA
D. H. Mathalon*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA San Francisco VA Health Care System, San Francisco, CA, USA
*
Author for correspondence: D. H. Mathalon, E-mail: daniel.mathalon@ucsf.edu

Abstract

Background

Schizophrenia (SZ) is a severe neuropsychiatric disorder associated with disrupted connectivity within the thalamic-cortico-cerebellar network. Resting-state functional connectivity studies have reported thalamic hypoconnectivity with the cerebellum and prefrontal cortex as well as thalamic hyperconnectivity with sensory cortical regions in SZ patients compared with healthy comparison participants (HCs). However, fundamental questions remain regarding the clinical significance of these connectivity abnormalities.

Method

Resting state seed-based functional connectivity was used to investigate thalamus to whole brain connectivity using multi-site data including 183 SZ patients and 178 matched HCs. Statistical significance was based on a voxel-level FWE-corrected height threshold of p < 0.001. The relationships between positive and negative symptoms of SZ and regions of the brain demonstrating group differences in thalamic connectivity were examined.

Results

HC and SZ participants both demonstrated widespread positive connectivity between the thalamus and cortical regions. Compared with HCs, SZ patients had reduced thalamic connectivity with bilateral cerebellum and anterior cingulate cortex. In contrast, SZ patients had greater thalamic connectivity with multiple sensory-motor regions, including bilateral pre- and post-central gyrus, middle/inferior occipital gyrus, and middle/superior temporal gyrus. Thalamus to middle temporal gyrus connectivity was positively correlated with hallucinations and delusions, while thalamus to cerebellar connectivity was negatively correlated with delusions and bizarre behavior.

Conclusions

Thalamic hyperconnectivity with sensory regions and hypoconnectivity with cerebellar regions in combination with their relationship to clinical features of SZ suggest that thalamic dysconnectivity may be a core neurobiological feature of SZ that underpins positive symptoms.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, P, Larøi, F, McGuire, PK and Aleman, A (2008) The hallucinating brain: a review of structural and functional neuroimaging studies of hallucinations. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 32, 175191.Google Scholar
Andreasen, NC (1983) Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS). Iowa City: University of Iowa.Google Scholar
Andreasen, NC (1984) Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms: (SAPS). Iowa City: University of Iowa.Google Scholar
Andreasen, NC, Paradiso, S and O'leary, DS (1998) “Cognitive dysmetria” as an integrative theory of schizophrenia: a dysfunction in cortical-subcortical-cerebellar circuitry? Schizophrenia Bulletin 24, 203218.Google Scholar
Andreasen, NC and Pierson, R (2008) The role of the cerebellum in schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry 64, 8188.Google Scholar
Anticevic, A, Cole, MW, Repovs, G, Murray, JD, Brumbaugh, MS, Winkler, AM et al. (2014 a) Characterizing thalamo-cortical disturbances in schizophrenia and bipolar illness. Cerebral Cortex 24, 31163130.Google Scholar
Anticevic, A, Haut, K, Murray, JD, Yang, GJ, Diehl, C, McEwen, SC et al. (2015) Association of thalamic dysconnectivity and conversion to psychosis in youth and young adults at elevated clinical risk. JAMA Psychiatry 72, 882891.Google Scholar
Anticevic, A, Yang, G, Savic, A, Murray, JD, Cole, MW, Repovs, G et al. (2014 b) Mediodorsal and visual thalamic connectivity differ in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with and without psychosis history. Schizophrenia Bulletin 6, 12271243.Google Scholar
Behzadi, Y, Restom, K, Liau, J and Liu, TT (2007) A component based noise correction method (CompCor) for BOLD and perfusion based fMRI. NeuroImage 37, 90101.Google Scholar
Brandt, MJ, Ijzerman, H, Dijksterhuis, A, Farach, FJ, Geller, J, Giner-Sorolla, R et al. (2014) The replication recipe: what makes for a convincing replication? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 50, 217224.Google Scholar
Brent, BK, Thermenos, HW, Keshavan, MS and Seidman, LJ (2013) Gray matter alterations in schizophrenia high-risk youth and early-onset schizophrenia: a review of structural MRI findings. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America 22, 689714.Google Scholar
Button, KS, Ioannidis, JP, Mokrysz, C, Nosek, BA, Flint, J, Robinson, ES et al. (2013) Power failure: why small sample size undermines the reliability of neuroscience. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 14, 365376.Google Scholar
Çetin, MS, Christensen, F, Abbott, CC, Stephen, JM, Mayer, AR, Cañive, JM et al. (2014) Thalamus and posterior temporal lobe show greater inter-network connectivity at rest and across sensory paradigms in schizophrenia. NeuroImage 97, 117126.Google Scholar
Cheng, W, Palaniyappan, L, Li, M, Kendrick, KM, Zhang, J, Luo, Q et al. (2015) Voxel-based, brain-wide association study of aberrant functional connectivity in schizophrenia implicates thalamocortical circuitry. npj Schizophrenia 1, 15016.Google Scholar
Cobia, DJ, Smith, MJ, Wang, L and Csernansky, JG (2012) Longitudinal progression of frontal and temporal lobe changes in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research 139, 16.Google Scholar
Collin, G, Pol, HEH, Haijma, SV, Cahn, W, Kahn, RS and van den Heuvel, MP (2011) Impaired cerebellar functional connectivity in schizophrenia patients and their healthy siblings. Frontiers Psychiatry 2, 73.Google Scholar
Damaraju, E, Allen, E, Belger, A, Ford, J, McEwen, S, Mathalon, D et al. (2014) Dynamic functional connectivity analysis reveals transient states of dysconnectivity in schizophrenia. NeuroImage: Clinical 5, 298308.Google Scholar
Fagerstrom, KO (1978) Measuring degree of physical dependence to tobacco smoking with reference to individualization of treatment. Addictive Behaviors 3, 235241.Google Scholar
Feinberg, I (1978) Efference copy and corollary discharge: implications for thinking and its disorders. Schizophrenia Bulletin 4, 636.Google Scholar
Feinberg, I and Guazzelli, M (1999) Schizophrenia – a disorder of the corollary discharge systems that integrate the motor systems of thought with the sensory systems of consciousness. British Journal of Psychiatry 174, 196204.Google Scholar
First, MB, Spitzer, RL, Gibbon, MG and Williams, JBW (2002 a) Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR Axis I Disorders – Non-Patient Edition (SCID-I/NP). New York: Biometrics Research, New York State Psychiatric Institute.Google Scholar
First, MB, Spitzer, RL, Gibbon, MG and Williams, JBW (2002 b) Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR Axis I Disorders – Patient Edition (SCID-I/P, 11/2002 revision). New York: Biometrics Research, New York State Psychiatric Institute.Google Scholar
Frith, CD, Blakemore, S-J and Wolpert, DM (2000) Explaining the symptoms of schizophrenia: abnormalities in the awareness of action. Brain Research Reviews 31, 357363.Google Scholar
Giraldo-Chica, M and Woodward, ND (2016) Review of thalamocortical resting-state fMRI studies in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research 180, 5863.Google Scholar
Hollingstead, AB (1975) Four Factor Index of Social Status. New Haven, CT: Yale University.Google Scholar
Huang, X, Nichols, TE, Kim, B and Foster, N (2007) Accounting for missing data in neuroimaging analyses. In 3th Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping. Chicago, Illinois: NeuroImage, p. #341.Google Scholar
Jardri, R, Pouchet, A, Pins, D and Thomas, P (2011) Cortical activations during auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia: a coordinate-based meta-analysis. American Journal of Psychiatry 168, 7381.Google Scholar
Kastner, S, Schneider, KA and Wunderlich, K (2006) Beyond a relay nucleus: neuroimaging views on the human LGN. Progress in Brain Research 155, 125143.Google Scholar
Klingner, CM, Langbein, K, Dietzek, M, Smesny, S, Witte, OW, Sauer, H et al. (2014) Thalamocortical connectivity during resting state in schizophrenia. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 264, 111119.Google Scholar
Lancaster, JL, Woldorff, MG, Parsons, LM, Liotti, M, Freitas, CS, Rainey, L et al. (2000) Automated Talairach atlas labels for functional brain mapping. Human Brain Mapping 10, 120131.Google Scholar
Li, T, Wang, Q, Zhang, J, Rolls, ET, Yang, W, Palaniyappan, L et al. (2016) Brain-wide analysis of functional connectivity in first-episode and chronic stages of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin 43, 436448.Google Scholar
Mathalon, DH and Ford, JM (2008) Corollary discharge dysfunction in schizophrenia: evidence for an elemental deficit. Clinical EEG and Neuroscience 39, 8286.Google Scholar
Mathalon, DH and Ford, JM (2012) Neurobiology of schizophrenia: search for the elusive correlation with symptoms. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 6, 136.Google Scholar
Niendam, TA, Laird, AR, Ray, KL, Dean, YM, Glahn, DC and Carter, CS (2012) Meta-analytic evidence for a superordinate cognitive control network subserving diverse executive functions. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience 12, 241268.Google Scholar
Nishio, Y, Hashimoto, M, Ishii, K and Mori, E (2011) Neuroanatomy of a neurobehavioral disturbance in the left anterior thalamic infarction. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry 82, 11951200.Google Scholar
Oldfield, RC (1971) The assessment and analysis of handedness: the Edinburgh inventory. Neuropsychologia 9, 97113.Google Scholar
Ramnani, N (2006) The primate cortico-cerebellar system: anatomy and function. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 7, 511522.Google Scholar
Schmid, MC, Singer, W and Fries, P (2012) Thalamic coordination of cortical communication. Neuron 75, 551552.Google Scholar
Sherman, SM (2007) The thalamus is more than just a relay. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 17, 417422.Google Scholar
Sherman, SM (2016) Thalamus plays a central role in ongoing cortical functioning. Nature Neuroscience 16, 533541.Google Scholar
Stephan, KE, Baldeweg, T and Friston, KJ (2006) Synaptic plasticity and dysconnection in schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry 59, 929939.Google Scholar
Stephan, KE, Friston, KJ and Frith, CD (2009) Dysconnection in schizophrenia: from abnormal synaptic plasticity to failures of self-monitoring. Schizophrenia Bulletin 35, 509527.Google Scholar
Tang, J, Liao, Y, Zhou, B, Tan, C, Liu, W, Wang, D et al. (2012) Decrease in temporal gyrus gray matter volume in first-episode, early onset schizophrenia: an MRI study. PloS ONE 7, e40247.Google Scholar
Uttl, B (2002) North American adult reading test: age norms, reliability, and validity. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology 24, 11231137.Google Scholar
Wang, H-LS, Rau, C-L, Li, Y-M, Chen, Y-P and Yu, R (2015) Disrupted thalamic resting-state functional networks in schizophrenia. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience 9, 45.Google Scholar
Watanabe, Y and Funahashi, S (2012) Thalamic mediodorsal nucleus and working memory. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 36, 134142.Google Scholar
Whitfield-Gabrieli, S and Nieto-Castanon, A (2012) Conn: a functional connectivity toolbox for correlated and anticorrelated brain networks. Brain Connectivity 2, 125141.Google Scholar
Woodward, ND and Heckers, S (2015) Mapping thalamocortical functional connectivity in chronic and early stages of psychotic disorders. Biological Psychiatry 79, 10161025.Google Scholar
Woodward, ND, Karbasforoushan, H and Heckers, S (2012) Thalamocortical dysconnectivity in schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry 10, 10921099.Google Scholar