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. 2020 Nov 2;10(1):368.
doi: 10.1038/s41398-020-01049-0.

Cognitive deficits and white matter abnormalities in never-treated first-episode schizophrenia

Mi Yang  1   2   3 , Shan Gao  4 , Xiangyang Zhang  5   6
Affiliations

Cognitive deficits and white matter abnormalities in never-treated first-episode schizophrenia

Mi Yang et al. Transl Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Cognitive impairment is viewed as a core symptom of schizophrenia (SCZ), but its pathophysiological mechanism remains unclear. White matter (WM) disruption is considered to be a central abnormality that may contribute to cognitive impairment in SCZ patients. However, few studies have addressed the association between cognition and WM integrity in never-treated first-episode (NTFE) patients with SCZ. In this study, we used the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) to evaluate cognitive function in NTFE patients (n = 39) and healthy controls (n = 30), and associated it with whole-brain fractional anisotropy (FA) values obtained via voxel-based diffusion tensor imaging. We found that FA was lower in five brain areas of SCZ patients, including the cingulate gyrus, internal capsule, corpus callosum, cerebellum, and brainstem. Compared with the healthy control group, the MCCB's total score and 8 out of 10 subscores were significantly lower in NTFE patients (all p < 0.001). Moreover, in patients but not healthy controls, the performance in the Trail Making Test was negatively correlated with the FA value in the left cingulate. Our findings provide evidence that WM disconnection is involved in some cognitive impairment in the early course of SCZ.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. The correlation between the fractional anisotropy (FA) value in the left cingulate gyrus and performance in the Trail Making Test in never-treated first-episode patients with schizophrenia.
The FA in the left cingulate was negatively associated with the Trail Making Test A index (r = −0.53, df = 30, p = 0.003).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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