It was found that the neurosoft sign of schizophrenia was related to the abnormal brain structure network of cortex subcortical cerebellum

Schizophrenia is a complex mental disease, which can lead to a wide range of neurocognitive, emotional and neurodevelopmental disorders Neurosoft syndrome (NSS) is considered to be one of the most promising phenotypes in schizophrenia Chen Chuqiao, a researcher at the Key Laboratory of mental health, Institute of psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, led the team of neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience (NaCN) to provide a large number of evidences on the sensitivity, reliability and specificity of NSS to schizophrenia However, the relationship between NSS and abnormal brain network in schizophrenia is not clear In a recent study, Chen Chuqiao, the research team's postdoctoral researcher Kong Li and international partners used graph theory to conduct in-depth research on the potential brain structure network of 101 first-episode schizophrenics The researchers conducted structural network analysis based on gray matter morphometry and analysis associated with NSS The patients were divided into high-level and low-level NSS groups, and their local and global brain network characteristics were examined The results show that there is no significant difference between the two groups in the characteristics of global brain network Subsequently, the analysis of local network features showed that NSS was related to the centrality of mediators in the prefrontal cortex, temporal cortex, hippocampus, supraorbital cortex, amygdala and cerebellum The results of global brain network analysis further showed that NSS was related to the distribution of central nodes including the medial frontal cortex, the temporal cortex, the middle cortex, the posterior central cortex, the amygdala and the cerebellum These areas are consistent with cortical subcortical cerebellar circuit abnormalities considered to be the cause of clinical and behavioral manifestations in schizophrenia Chen Chuqiao's team and their collaborators are further examining the abnormal expression of NDD in brain structure and function in combination with NSS behavior measurement and neuroimaging measurement in order to better understand the pathogenesis of schizophrenia The research is supported by the national key research and development project, "science and Technology Beijing" leading talent training project, the Key Laboratory of mental health of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Institute of psychology and the National Natural Science Foundation of China This article has been published online in Schizophrenia Bulletin