Abnormal regional homogeneity as a potential imaging biomarker for adolescent-onset schizophrenia: A resting-state fMRI study and support vector machine analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Structural and functional abnormalities have been reported in the brain of patients with adolescent-onset schizophrenia (AOS). The brain regional functional synchronization in patients with AOS remains unclear.

METHODS: We analyzed resting-state functional magnetic resonance scans in 48 drug-naive patients with AOS and 31 healthy controls by using regional homogeneity (ReHo), a measurement that reflects brain local functional connectivity or synchronization and indicates regional integration of information processing. Then, receiver operating characteristic curves and support vector machines were used to evaluate the effect of abnormal regional homogeneity in differentiating patients from controls.

RESULTS: Patients with AOS showed significantly increased ReHo values in the bilateral superior medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and significantly decreased ReHo values in the left superior temporal gyrus (STG), right precentral lobule, right inferior parietal lobule (IPL), and left paracentral lobule when compared with controls. A combination of the ReHo values in bilateral superior MPFC, left STG, and right IPL was able to discriminate patients from controls with the sensitivity of 88.24%, specificity of 91.89%, and accuracy of 90.14%.

CONCLUSION: The brain regional functional synchronization abnormalities exist in drug-naive patients with AOS. A combination of ReHo values in these abnormal regions might serve as potential imaging biomarker to identify patients with AOS.