Neurochemical and brain functional changes in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex of first-episode psychosis patients: A combined functional magnetic resonance imaging—proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy study

作者：Haixin Cen, Jiale Xu, Zhilei Yang, Mei Li, Tianyi Chen, Kaiming Zhuo, Qiong Xiang, Zhenghua Song, Yingchan Wang, Xiaoyun Guo, Jinhong Wang, Kaida Jiang, Yifeng Xu, Yao Li, Dengtang Liu · 发表于：Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry · 年份：2020 · DOI：10.1177/0004867419898520 · 被引用次数：22 · 研究领域：Advanced MRI Techniques and Applications、Functional Brain Connectivity Studies、Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications

Objective: Previous studies showed alterations of brain function in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex of schizophrenia patients. Also, neurochemical changes, especially GABA level alteration, have been found in the medial prefrontal cortex of schizophrenia patients. However, the relationship between GABA level in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and brain functional activity in schizophrenia patients remains unexplored. Methods: In total, 23 drug-naïve, first-episode psychosis patients and 26 matched healthy controls completed the study. The single voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy data were acquired in ventromedial prefrontal cortex region, which was used as the seed region for resting-state functional connectivity analysis. The proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy data were processed to quantify the concentrations of GABA+, glutamine and glutamate, and N-acetylaspartate in ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Spearman correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between metabolite concentration, functional connectivity and clinical variables. Pearson correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between GABA+ concentration and functional connectivity value. Results: In first-episode psychosis patients, GABA+ level in ventromedial prefrontal cortex was higher and was positively correlated with ventromedial prefrontal cortex-left middle orbital frontal cortex functional connectivity. N-acetylaspartate level was positively correlated with po...