Common and distinct dysfunctional patterns contribute to triple network model in schizophrenia and depression: A preliminary study

- A triple network model focused on default mode network (DMN), salience network (SN) and central executive network (CEN) is well known in psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia and depression.
- Functional and effective connectivity were used to investigate the three core networks in both patients groups at resting-state.
- Results demonstrated common causal dysconnectivity between DMN and SN, as well as opposing functional dysconnectivity of DMN-CEN and SN-CEN.
- Findings also identified opposing functional dysconnectivity patterns of DMN-CEN and SN-CEN.
- These dysconnectivity patterns may contribute to the advancing understanding of the triple network model in psychiatric disorders.

BackgroundSchizophrenia (SCH) and depression (DEP) are prevalent psychiatric disorders and share common and distinguished elements in their pathophysiology. A triple network model composed of the default mode network (DMN), salience network (SN) and central executive network (CEN) may represent a major abnormality across several psychiatric disorders including SCH and DEP. However, common and distinct dysfunctional patterns between SCH and DEP across three core networks remain unclear.MethodResting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was obtained in 20 patients with SCH, 20 patients with DEP and 20 healthy controls (HC). Both functional connectivity (FC) and Granger causal connectivity across DMN, SN and CEN were evaluated to uncover common and distinct dysfunctional patterns between SCH and DEP.ResultsTwo patient groups showed identical abnormal causal connectivity between key nodes of DMN and SN, as well as opposing aberrant FC of DMN-CEN and SN-CEN. Compared with HC, the FC between CEN and DMN was increased in SCH while decreased in DEP. Conversely, DEP showed enhanced FC between CEN and SN, whereas SCH showed decreased FC.LimitationsThe sample size was relatively small, and all participants were taking medication.ConclusionsOur results identified common patterns including dysconnectivity between DMN and SN, which may contribute to shared cognitive and affective impairment in DEP and SCH. Moreover, opposing dysconnectivity patterns of DMN-CEN may be associated with different self-referential processing abnormalities. These opposing dysconnectivity patterns may indicate an unbalanced recruitment between SN and CEN. Therefore, this study provides dysconnectivity patterns to advance the understanding of the triple network model with regard to psychiatric disorders.