Altered global brain signal in schizophrenia

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 May 20;111(20):7438-43. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1405289111. Epub 2014 May 5.

Abstract

Neuropsychiatric conditions like schizophrenia display a complex neurobiology, which has long been associated with distributed brain dysfunction. However, no investigation has tested whether schizophrenia shows alterations in global brain signal (GS), a signal derived from functional MRI and often discarded as a meaningless baseline in many studies. To evaluate GS alterations associated with schizophrenia, we studied two large chronic patient samples (n = 90, n = 71), comparing them to healthy subjects (n = 220) and patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder (n = 73). We identified and replicated increased cortical power and variance in schizophrenia, an effect predictive of symptoms yet obscured by GS removal. Voxel-wise signal variance was also increased in schizophrenia, independent of GS effects. Both findings were absent in bipolar patients, confirming diagnostic specificity. Biologically informed computational modeling of shared and nonshared signal propagation through the brain suggests that these findings may be explained by altered net strength of overall brain connectivity in schizophrenia.

Keywords: global signal; psychiatric illness; resting-state.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Bipolar Disorder / physiopathology*
  • Brain / physiopathology*
  • Brain Mapping / methods*
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Computer Simulation
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Oxygen / blood
  • Schizophrenia / physiopathology*

Substances

  • Oxygen