Atypical frontotemporal cortical activity in first-episode adolescent-onset schizophrenia during verbal fluency task: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study

Kun Zhang; Xingyue Jin; Yuqiong He; Shuxian Wu; Xilong Cui; Xueping Gao; Chunxiang Huang; Xuerong Luo

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1126131

Atypical frontotemporal cortical activity in first-episode adolescent-onset schizophrenia during verbal fluency task: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study

Front Psychiatry. 2023 Mar 8:14:1126131. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1126131. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Kun Zhang¹, Xingyue Jin¹, Yuqiong He¹, Shuxian Wu¹, Xilong Cui¹, Xueping Gao¹, Chunxiang Huang¹, Xuerong Luo¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Psychiatry, and National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.

Abstract

Background: Frontotemporal cortex dysfunction has been found to be associated with cognitive impairment in patients with schizophrenia (SCZ). In patients with adolescent-onset SCZ, a more serious type of SCZ with poorer functional outcome, cognitive impairment appeared to occur at an early stage of the disease. However, the characteristics of frontotemporal cortex involvement in adolescent patients with cognitive impairment are still unclear. In the present study, we aimed to illustrate the frontotemporal hemodynamic response during a cognitive task in adolescents with first-episode SCZ.

Methods: Adolescents with first-episode SCZ who were aged 12-17 and demographically matched healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. We used a 48-channel functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) system to record the concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) in the participants' frontotemporal area during a verbal fluency task (VFT) and analyzed its correlation with clinical characteristics.

Results: Data from 36 adolescents with SCZ and 38 HCs were included in the analyses. Significant differences were found between patients with SCZ and HCs in 24 channels, mainly covering the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, superior and middle temporal gyrus and frontopolar area. Adolescents with SCZ showed no increase of oxy-Hb concentration in most channels, while the VFT performance was comparable between the two groups. In SCZ, the intensity of activation was not associated with the severity of symptoms. Finally, receiver operating characteristic analysis indicated that the changes in oxy-Hb concentration could help distinguish the two groups.

Conclusion: Adolescents with first-episode SCZ showed atypical cortical activity in the frontotemporal area during the VFT, and fNIRS features might be more sensitive indicators in cognitive assessment, indicating that the characteristic hemodynamic response pattern might be potential imaging biomarkers for this population.

Keywords: adolescent-onset schizophrenia; cognitive impairment; first-episode; frontotemporal dysfunction; functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2017YFC1309904), Development Program of Hunan Province (No. 2019SK2081), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82201703), and the research sailing program supported by Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University.