Schizotypal Traits are Associated with Decreased Functional Connectivity between Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Cerebellum in a Non-clinical Sample

• Published in: European psychiatry Vol. 65; no. S1; p. S214
• Main Authors: Panikratova, Y., Abdullina, E., Pechenkova, E., Lebedeva, I.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Paris Cambridge University Press 01-06-2022
• Subjects: Abstract; Brain; E-Poster Presentation; Personality disorders; resting-state fMRI; Schizophrenia; schizotypy; SPQ-74
• ISSN: 0924-9338; 1778-3585
• DOI: 10.1192/j.eurpsy.2022.558

Introduction
Schizotypy is associated with increased vulnerability to schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Therefore, investigation of its brain correlates seems prominent for better understanding of schizophrenia-spectrum continuum as well as for development of biological treatments for schizotypal personality disorder. Functional alterations of prefrontal cortex (PFC) and their associations with clinical symptoms are well-known to exist in schizophrenia. However, their relevance to schizotypy remains unclear.
Objectives
The aim of the study was to check for associations between schizotypal traits in a non-clinical sample and whole-brain functional connectivity (FC) of lateral as well as medial PFC (lPFC and mPFC, respectively).
Methods
Eighty-two healthy individuals (52 females, mean age 24.8±5.48) filled out the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ-74) and underwent resting-state fMRI (3T). Seeds in lPFC and mPFC were taken from frontoparietal and default mode networks (atlas by Yeo et al., 2011). We analyzed correlations between four schizotypal factors (cognitive/perceptual, paranoid, negative, and disorganization; Stefanis et al., 2004) and whole-brain FC of the seeds (statistical threshold:
p
<.001 voxelwise;
p[FDR]
<.05 clusterwise).
Results
Cognitive/perceptual factor (‘Odd beliefs/magical thinking’ and ‘Unusual perceptual experiences’ SPQ-74 subscales) is negatively correlated to FC of bilateral mPFC with a cluster in the right cerebellum (Crus 1, 2).
Conclusions
Prefrontal-cerebellar dysconnectivity may be one of the neurobiological factors underlying positive-symptoms-like schizotypal traits in non-clinical subjects. To some extent, it coincides with the data on associations between functional features of these brain structures and positive symptoms in schizophrenia (Pinheiro et al., 2021; Goghari et al., 2010).
Disclosure
The study was supported by RFBR Grant 20-013-00748.