Led by Shuixia Guo, and Ningning He, researchers at the MOE-LCSM, School of Mathematics and Statistics, Hunan Normal University, China.

Highlights

• Functional dysconnectivity in the brain is a common feature of schizophrenia. 
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies can be used to evaluate the functional dysconnectivity in unaffected siblings to determine genetic influence. 
• Published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.

Summary

1. Assessment of resting-state dysconnectivity can help predict clinical expression, genetic diathesis, treatment response, and resilience in schizophrenia patients and their unaffected siblings.
2. Resting-state functional dysconnectivity in schizophrenia patients is more likely to be associated with genetic influence than clinical expression. 
3. The most prominent disruption at the network level is observed in the nodes of the salience networks and default mode. 
4. Unaffected siblings, despite their predisposition to schizophrenia, may show a pattern of resilience in their brain network. 

Image

The static functional connectivity in the brain is increased while dynamic functional connectivity is reduced in schizophrenia.