Dynamic Whole Brain Polarity Regimes Strongly Distinguish Controls from Schizophrenia Patients

摘要

From a large clinical blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we report several interrelated findings involving transient supra-network brainwide states (dynamic polarity regimes (dPRs)) of fMRI activation in which large proportions of voxels are simultaneously exhibiting intensities in the upper third or simultaneously exhibiting intensities in the lower third of their own activation profiles. The presence of highly polarized states, those in which many voxels are simultaneously at the high or low end of their own activation profiles, is shown to be significantly anti-correlated with diagnosed schizophrenia and significantly correlated with transient patterns of both strongly modularized network connectivity and diffuse hyperconnectivity between functional brain networks on multiple timescales. Conversely, the weak under-modularized network connectivity and the inhibitory connections between default mode (DMN) and other networks characteristic of schizophrenia patients correlates significantly with non-polarized, more heterogeneous brainwide voxel activation levels. Moreover, the spatial distribution of voxels most likely to contribute to highly polarized states (polarity participation maps (PPMs)) also differ with a high degree of statistical significance between schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. Our findings highlight a particular whole-brain spatiotemporal BOLD activation phenomenon that underpins distinct network connectivity pathologies associated with a serious clinical disorder.