RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Reduced temporal activation during a verbal fluency test in clinical high risk of psychosis: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy-based study
JF General Psychiatry
JO Gen Psych
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP e100702
DO 10.1136/gpsych-2021-100702
VO 35
IS 2
A1 Yanyan Wei
A1 Xiaochen Tang
A1 Tingyu Zhang
A1 Wenjun Su
A1 Lihua Xu
A1 Huiru Cui
A1 Zhenying Qian
A1 Tianhong Zhang
A1 Jijun Wang
YR 2022
UL http://gpsych.bmj.com/content/35/2/e100702.abstract
AB Background Clinical high risk (CHR) of psychosis is a state in which positive symptoms cause the subjects distress but do not approach a severity level that fulfils the criteria for a psychotic episode. CHR exhibits cognitive deficits; however, the underlying neurobiological mechanisms remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate whether brain activation measured by the levels of oxygenated hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) in CHR subjects could be correlated with cognitive deficits.Methods Fifty-eight CHR individuals who fulfilled the criteria for attenuated positive syndrome as specified in the Structured Interview for Prodromal Syndrome (SIPS) and the Scale of Prodromal Syndrome (SOPS) and 58 age- and sex-matched healthy participants were included in the study. All subjects completed the Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia (MATRICS) Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB) that includes tests measuring attention, verbal memory, verbal fluency, executive function, and general intelligence. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure the level of oxy-Hb in the dorsolateral prefrontal and frontotemporal cortices.Results We observed significantly decreased oxy-Hb levels in channel 32 (located in the right superior temporal gyrus, rSTG)) within the CHR individuals compared with that in the healthy controls (HCs) (t=−3.44, Bonferroni-corrected p=0.002), indicating lower brain activity. A significant positive correlation was observed between task-related β values and working memory in the CHR group (r=0.35, p=0.008).Conclusions The brain activation of rSTG is abnormal among subjects at clinicial high risk for psychosis. This abnormality is probably associated with the neural mechanisms of deficits in the working memory during the early stage of psychosis.Data are available upon reasonable request. The data used in this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.