Abstract
Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder associated with altered connectivity of brain functional networks (BFNs). Researchers have observed a profound disruption in prefrontal–temporal interactions, damage to hub regions in brain networks and modified topological organization of BFNs in schizophrenia (SCZ) individuals. Assessment of BFNs with dynamic approaches allow the characterization of new functional structures, such as topological stability patterns and temporal connectivity, which are not accessible through static methods. In this perspective, the present study investigated the physiological processes of brain connectivity in SCZ. A resting-state EEG dataset of 14 SCZ individuals and 14 healthy controls (HC) was obtained at a sampling rate of 250 Hz. Dynamic BFNs were constructed using time-varying graphs combined with the motifs' synchronization method and the indexes were evaluated in different scales: global averages, by hemispheres, by regions, and by electrodes for both groups. The SCZ group exhibited lower temporal connectivity, lesser hub probability, and fewer number of edges in right and left temporal lobes over time, besides increased temporal connectivity in the central-parietal region. Neither differences for the full synchronization time of BFNs were observed, nor for intra- and inter-hemispheric connections between groups. These results indicate that SCZ BFNs exhibit a dynamic fluctuation pattern with abrupt increases in connectivity over time for the regions studied. This elucidates an attempted interaction of the temporal area with other regions (frontal, central-parietal, and occipital) that is not sufficient to maintain a connectivity pattern in schizophrenia individuals similar to that of healthy subjects. Our results suggest that changes in interaction of dynamic BFNs connections in SCZ can be better approached by dynamic analyses that enable a thorough glance at brain changes over time.
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The dataset used in this study is available in Olejarczyk E, Jernajczyk W (2017) “EEG in schizophrenia”, RepOD, V1. https://doi.org/10.18150/repod.0107441.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are indebted to the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado da Bahia (FAPESB), for the financial support. We are also thankful to Laboratory of Biosystems from Universidade Federal da Bahia for helping with the software developed for construction of the BFNs.
Funding
This work was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado da Bahia (FAPESB) (Number 307/2020–Cota 2020; BOL0202/2020). The author José Garcia V. Miranda received financial support from the Brazilian National Council for Technical and Scientific Development (CNPq), grant number 307828/2018–2.
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TGLOT was involved in the design and execution of the paper, initiated and performed data processing, applied statistics and wrote the manuscript. RSR, EPS, and JGVM evaluated the statistics and methodology applied in the study. RSR created the motif’s synchronization method applied in this study. JGVM, EPS, and RSR revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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de O. Toutain, T.G.L., Miranda, J.G.V., do Rosário, R.S. et al. Brain instability in dynamic functional connectivity in schizophrenia. J Neural Transm 130, 171–180 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-022-02579-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-022-02579-1