Striatal cerebral blood flow, executive functioning, and fronto-striatal functional connectivity in clinical high risk for psychosis

Abstract

Background: Patients at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis exhibit increased striatal cerebral blood flow (CBF) during the resting state and impaired cognitive function. However, the relation between CBF and cognitive impairment is unknown. We therefore studied the association between striatal CBF and executive functioning and evaluated the functional connectivity (FC) between dorsal striatum and the frontal cortex in CHR.

Methods: In total, 47 participants [29 with CHR, 18 matched clinical controls (CC)] were assessed for ultra-high-risk criteria and basic symptoms and were tested for executive functioning using the trail making test-B (TMT-B). Resting state mean CBF and FC were calculated from arterial spin labeling 3T MRI data.

Results: Striatal CBF was highest in CHR patients with TMT-B deficits and was significantly higher than that in CC with and without TMT-B impairment. Further, a significantly lower CBF FC between the dorsal striatum and the anterior cingulate cortex was revealed in CHR.

Conclusions: Our study suggests that higher striatal CBF might represent focal pathology in CHR and is associated with disrupted cingulo-striatal FC and executive dysfunctions.

Keywords: Anterior cingulate cortex; Arterial spin labeling; Cerebral blood flow; Cognition; Connectivity; Psychosis risk; Striatum.