An Association Study on the Cognitive Function and the Cerebral Grey Matter Volume of Patients with First-Episode Schizophrenia

Overview

Journal Shanghai Arch Psychiatry

Specialty Psychiatry

Date 2019 Mar 13

PMID 30858667

Citations 13

Authors

Xinyue Zhang

Jingjing Yao

Yiding Lv

Xiaoxin Zhao

Yuan Li

Yuxiu Sui

Dai Zhiping

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: The impairment of cognitive function is one of the core symptoms in schizophrenia, and the degree of recovery is closely related to whether patients are able to rejoin society successfully.

Objective: This study was to clarify the correlation between cognitive function and cerebral grey matter volume in schizophrenia.

Methods: The neuro-cognitive functions of thirty-seven patients with first-episode schizophrenia (the patient group) and thirty healthy controls (the control group) was evaluated with the Clock Drawing Test, Trail Marking Test, Digit Span Test, Auditory Verbal Learning Test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Verbal Fluency Test, Semantic Similarity Test and Stroop Color-Word Test. The facial emotion cognitive task was employed to assess the facial emotion cognitive functions of thirty-two patients with first-episode schizophrenia (the patient group) and 29 healthy controls (the control group). The psychotic symptoms of patients with first-episode schizophrenia were evaluated using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). The brain imaging data of the patient group and control group were collected using the magnetic resonance imagine (MRI).

Results: The difference between the patient group and the control group in the results of Clock Drawing Test, Trail Marking Test, Digit Span Test, Auditory Verbal Learning Test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Verbal Fluency Test, Semantic Similarity Test and Stroop Color-Word Test's reaction time were significant. These two groups' Slopes in the facial emotion cognitive task were also significantly different from each other. According to the comparison of cerebral grey matter volume between the patient group and the control group, it was found that the grey matter volume of the patient group increased in the left superior frontal gyrus, and decreased in the left occipital gyrus, lingual gyrus and upper cerebellum. Based on the analyses of neuro-cognitive data and brain imaging data of the patient group, the scores of the number of correct responses in Stroop Color-Word Test's Card C were negatively correlated with grey matter volumes of the left upper frontal gyrus, right upper frontal gyrus and middle frontal gyrus. The analyses on the facial emotion cognitive task and brain imaging data of the patient group showed that the slope data were positively correlated with grey matter volumes of the right superior temporal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus, inferior temporal gyrus and fusiform gyrus.

Conclusion: There are general impairments in the neuro-cognitive functions and facial emotion cognitive functions of patients with first-episode schizophrenia, and the results suggest that brain areas with abnormal grey matter volumes are likely to be the brain structure and functional basis of the cognitive impairments.

Citing Articles

Neurocognitive Functions Related to Parietal Lobe in Patients with Schizophrenia and Methamphetamine Induced Psychotic Disorder and Healthy Individuals: A Comparative Study.

Khalili N, Mazhari S, Mortazavi N Addict Health. 2023; 14(4):244-249.

PMID: 37559788 PMC: 10408750. DOI: 10.34172/ahj.2022.1246.

Neurocognitive Deficits in First-Episode and Chronic Psychotic Disorders: A Systematic Review from 2009 to 2022.

Tschentscher N, Woll C, Tafelmaier J, Kriesche D, Bucher J, Engel R Brain Sci. 2023; 13(2).

PMID: 36831842 PMC: 9954070. DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13020299.

Cerebellar gray matter volume changes in patients with schizophrenia: A voxel-based meta-analysis.

Li X, Liu N, Yang C, Zhang W, Lui S Front Psychiatry. 2023; 13:1083480.

PMID: 36620665 PMC: 9814486. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1083480.

Association between fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) and facial emotion recognition ability in first-episode schizophrenia patients: a fMRI study.

Kuang Q, Zhou S, Li H, Mi L, Zheng Y, She S Sci Rep. 2022; 12(1):19561.

PMID: 36380188 PMC: 9666540. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-24258-7.

Obesity is associated with greater cognitive function in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Xing Z, Long C, Hu X, Chai X Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2022; 13:953826.

PMID: 36353230 PMC: 9637978. DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2022.953826.

References

Pollak S, Kistler D . Early experience is associated with the development of categorical representations for facial expressions of emotion. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002; 99(13):9072-6. PMC: 124425. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.142165999. View

Hoff A, Svetina C, Shields G, Stewart J, DeLisi L . Ten year longitudinal study of neuropsychological functioning subsequent to a first episode of schizophrenia. Schizophr Res. 2005; 78(1):27-34. DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2005.05.010. View

Wu E, Birnbaum H, Shi L, Ball D, Kessler R, Moulis M . The economic burden of schizophrenia in the United States in 2002. J Clin Psychiatry. 2005; 66(9):1122-9. DOI: 10.4088/jcp.v66n0906. View

Kuroki N, Shenton M, Salisbury D, Hirayasu Y, Onitsuka T, Ersner-Hershfield H . Middle and inferior temporal gyrus gray matter volume abnormalities in first-episode schizophrenia: an MRI study. Am J Psychiatry. 2006; 163(12):2103-10. PMC: 2766919. DOI: 10.1176/ajp.2006.163.12.2103. View

Andreasen N, Pierson R . The role of the cerebellum in schizophrenia. Biol Psychiatry. 2008; 64(2):81-8. PMC: 3175494. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2008.01.003. View

Burke L, Androutsos C, Jogia J, Byrne P, Frangou S . The Maudsley Early Onset Schizophrenia Study: the effect of age of onset and illness duration on fronto-parietal gray matter. Eur Psychiatry. 2008; 23(4):233-6. DOI: 10.1016/j.eurpsy.2008.03.007. View

Morris R, Weickert C, Loughland C . Emotional face processing in schizophrenia. Curr Opin Psychiatry. 2009; 22(2):140-6. DOI: 10.1097/YCO.0b013e328324f895. View

Leung M, Cheung C, Yu K, Yip B, Sham P, Li Q . Gray matter in first-episode schizophrenia before and after antipsychotic drug treatment. Anatomical likelihood estimation meta-analyses with sample size weighting. Schizophr Bull. 2009; 37(1):199-211. PMC: 3004197. DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbp099. View

Ellison-Wright I, Bullmore E . Anatomy of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia: a meta-analysis. Schizophr Res. 2010; 117(1):1-12. DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2009.12.022. View

10.

Gonzalez-Blanch C, Rodriguez-Sanchez J, Perez-Iglesias R, Pardo-Garcia G, Martinez-Garcia O, Vazquez-Barquero J . First-episode schizophrenia patients neuropsychologically within the normal limits: evidence of deterioration in speed of processing. Schizophr Res. 2010; 119(1-3):18-26. DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2010.02.1072. View

11.

Hartberg C, Lawyer G, Nyman H, Jonsson E, Haukvik U, Saetre P . Investigating relationships between cortical thickness and cognitive performance in patients with schizophrenia and healthy adults. Psychiatry Res. 2010; 182(2):123-33. DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2010.01.001. View

12.

Huang J, Chan R, Gollan J, Liu W, Ma Z, Li Z . Perceptual bias of patients with schizophrenia in morphed facial expression. Psychiatry Res. 2010; 185(1-2):60-5. PMC: 3805827. DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2010.05.017. View

13.

Han X, Yang L, Cheng Z, Zhang T, Yuan Y, Yu X . [Neurocognitive performance in the patients with first-episode schizophrenia and their independent first-degree relatives: a cross-sectional study]. Beijing Da Xue Xue Bao Yi Xue Ban. 2010; 42(6):681-6. View

14.

Green M, Schooler N, Kern R, Frese F, Granberry W, Harvey P . Evaluation of functionally meaningful measures for clinical trials of cognition enhancement in schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry. 2011; 168(4):400-7. DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2010.10030414. View

15.

Carrion R, Goldberg T, McLaughlin D, Auther A, Correll C, Cornblatt B . Impact of neurocognition on social and role functioning in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis. Am J Psychiatry. 2011; 168(8):806-13. PMC: 3181133. DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2011.10081209. View

16.

Behere R, Venkatasubramanian G, Arasappa R, Reddy N, Gangadhar B . First rank symptoms & facial emotion recognition deficits in antipsychotic naïve schizophrenia: Implications for social threat perception model. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2011; 35(7):1653-8. DOI: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2011.05.019. View

17.

Fusar-Poli P, Radua J, McGuire P, Borgwardt S . Neuroanatomical maps of psychosis onset: voxel-wise meta-analysis of antipsychotic-naive VBM studies. Schizophr Bull. 2011; 38(6):1297-307. PMC: 3494061. DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbr134. View

18.

Wallwork R, Fortgang R, Hashimoto R, Weinberger D, Dickinson D . Searching for a consensus five-factor model of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale for schizophrenia. Schizophr Res. 2012; 137(1-3):246-50. PMC: 3351536. DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2012.01.031. View

19.

Haijma S, van Haren N, Cahn W, Koolschijn P, Hulshoff Pol H, Kahn R . Brain volumes in schizophrenia: a meta-analysis in over 18 000 subjects. Schizophr Bull. 2012; 39(5):1129-38. PMC: 3756785. DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbs118. View

20.

Vita A, De Peri L, DEste G, Sacchetti E . Progressive loss of cortical gray matter in schizophrenia: a meta-analysis and meta-regression of longitudinal MRI studies. Transl Psychiatry. 2012; 2:e190. PMC: 3565772. DOI: 10.1038/tp.2012.116. View