Association between impaired brain activity and volume at the sub-region of Broca's area in ultra-high risk and first-episode schizophrenia: A multi-modal neuroimaging study

Recent studies have suggested that functional abnormalities in Broca's area, which is important in language production (speech and thoughts before speech), play an important role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. While multi-modal approaches have proved useful in revealing the specific pathophysiology of psychosis, the association of functional abnormalities with gray matter volume (GMV) here in subjects with an ultra-high risk (UHR) of schizophrenia, those with first-episode schizophrenia (FES), and healthy controls has yet to be clarified. Therefore, the relationship between cortical activity measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) during a verbal fluency task, and GMV in the Broca's area assessed using a manual tracing in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which considers individual structural variation, was examined for 57 subjects (23 UHR/18 FES/16 controls). The UHR and FES group showed significantly reduced brain activity compared to control group in the left pars triangularis (PT) (P = .036, .003, respectively). Furthermore in the FES group, the reduced brain activity significantly positively correlated with the volume in the left PT (B = 0.29, P = .027), while significant negative association was evident for all subjects (B = − 0.18, P = .010). This correlation remained significant after adjusting for antipsychotics dosage, and voxel-wise analysis could not detect any significant correlation between impaired cortical activity and volume. The significant relationship between neural activity and GMV in the left PT may reflect a specific pathophysiology related to the onset of schizophrenia.