• Ling-Yin Kong, Yuan-Yuan Huang, Bing-Ye Lei, Peng-Fei Ke, He-Hua Li, Jing Zhou, Dong-Sheng Xiong, Gui-Xiang Li, Jun Chen, Xiao-Bo Li, Zhi-Ming Xiang, Yu-Ping Ning, Feng-Chun Wu, and Kai Wu.
• Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Material Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China; Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for Translational Medicine of Mental Disorders, Guangzhou 510370, China; National Engineering Research Center for Tissue Restoration and Reconstruction, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China.
• Neuroscience. 2021 Apr 15; 460: 1-12.

AbstractEmerging evidence suggests that the coupling relating the structural connectivity (SC) of the brain to its functional connectivity (FC) exhibits remarkable changes during development, normal aging, and diseases. Although altered structural-functional connectivity couplings (SC-FC couplings) have been previously reported in schizophrenia patients, the alterations in SC-FC couplings of different illness stages of schizophrenia (SZ) remain largely unknown. In this study, we collected structural and resting-state functional MRI data from 73 normal controls (NCs), 61 first-episode (FeSZ) and 78 chronic (CSZ) schizophrenia patients. Positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) scores were assessed for all patients. Structural and functional brain networks were constructed using gray matter volume (GMV) and resting-state magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) time series measurements. At the connectivity level, the CSZ patients showed significantly increased SC-FC coupling strength compared with the FeSZ patients. At the node strength level, significant decreased SC-FC coupling strength was observed in the FeSZ patients compared to that of the NCs, and the coupling strength was positively correlated with negative PANSS scores. These results demonstrated divergent alterations of SC-FC couplings in FeSZ and CSZ patients. Our findings provide new insight into the neuropathological mechanisms underlying the developmental course of SZ.Copyright © 2021 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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