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. 2024 Sep 19:15:1474313.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1474313. eCollection 2024.

Divergent pattern of functional connectivity within the dorsal attention network differentiates schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients

Adrian Andrzej Chrobak  1 , Sylwia Bielak  2 , Dominik Nowaczek  3 , Aleksandra Żyrkowska  4   5 , Anna Maria Sobczak  4 , Magdalena Fafrowicz  4 , Amira Bryll  6 , Tadeusz Marek  7 , Dominika Dudek  1 , Marcin Siwek  8
Affiliations

Divergent pattern of functional connectivity within the dorsal attention network differentiates schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients

Adrian Andrzej Chrobak et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Introduction: Schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) share common clinical features, symptoms, and neurocognitive deficits, which results in common misdiagnosis. Recently, it has been suggested that alterations within brain networks associated with perceptual organization yield potential to distinguish SZ and BD individuals. The aim of our study was to evaluate whether functional connectivity (FC) of the dorsal attention network (DAN) may differentiate both conditions.

Methods: The study involved 90 participants: 30 remitted SZ patients, 30 euthymic BD patients, and 30 healthy controls (HC). Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to compare the groups in terms of the FC within the core nodes of the DAN involving frontal eye fields (FEF) and intraparietal sulcus (IPS).

Results: BD patients presented weaker inter-hemispheric FC between right and left FEF than HC. While SZ did not differ from HC in terms of inter-FEF connectivity, they presented increased inter- and intra-hemispheric FC between FEF and IPS. When compared with BD, SZ patients showed increased FC between right FEF and other nodes of the network (bilateral IPS and left FEF).

Conclusion: We have shown that altered resting state FC within DAN differentiates BD, SZ, and HC groups. Divergent pattern of FC within DAN, consisting of hypoconnectivity in BD and hyperconnectivity in SZ, might yield a candidate biomarker for differential diagnosis between both conditions. More highly powered studies are needed to confirm these possibilities.

Keywords: bipolar disorder; frontal eye fields; functional networks; parietal cortex; resting state; schizophrenia.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Visualization of significant differences in FC between bipolar disorder and healthy controls groups. FEF, frontal eye fields; (R), right; (L), left.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Visualization of significant differences in FC between schizophrenia and healthy control groups. FEF, frontal eye fields; IPS, intraparietal sulcus; (R), right; (L), left.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Visualization of significant differences in FC between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patient groups. FEF, frontal eye fields; IPS, intraparietal sulcus; (R), right; (L), left.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Effect sizes for the differences in FC between schizophrenia (SZ), bipolar disorder (BD), and healthy control (HC) groups. FEF, frontal eye fields; IPS, intraparietal sulcus; (R), right; (L), left.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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