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Khin Khin Tha¹, Maho Kitagawa², Samo Lasic³, Karin Bryskhe³, Jihun Kwon⁴, Marteen Versluis⁵, and Naoki Hashimoto^6
1Global Center for Biomedical Science and Engineering, Hokkaido University Faculty of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan, ²Laboratory for Biomarker Imaging Science, Hokkaido University Graduate School for Biomedical Science and Engineering, Sapporo, Japan, ³Random Walk Imaging, Lund, Sweden, ⁴Philips Japan, Tokyo, Japan, ⁵Philips Healthcare, Best, Netherlands, ⁶Department of Psychiatry, Hokkaido University Faculty of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan

Keywords: Psychiatric Disorders, Diffusion/other diffusion imaging techniques, schizophrenia, multidimensional diffusion

This prospective study aimed to identify the role of multidimensional diffusion (MDD) MRI and inhomogeneous magnetization transfer (ihMT) imaging, the former reported as capable of quantifying various microstructural diffusion properties and differentiating tissue-specific subparts and the latter as selective to changes in myelin, in underpinning the microstructural brain changes in schizophrenia. Alterations in MDD MRI indices were observed, associated with negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Altered size and shape of cells other than myelin (probably glia or neurons) are thought as coined in the pathophysiological mechanisms.  

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Judy Alper¹, Gaurav Verma¹, Shams Rashid¹, and Priti Balchandani^1
1Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States

Keywords: Psychiatric Disorders, High-Field MRI

Major depressive disorder has complex pathophysiology. It is critical to understand treatment-resistant depression (TRD) specifically, as there are many patients for whom no sufficient treatment exists. In this study we assess volumetric differences in hippocampal subfields between TRD patients and healthy controls (HC) using automatic segmentation of hippocampal subfields and ultra-high field MRI. 13 TRD patients and 13 HC underwent imaging using 7-Tesla MRI. ASHS software produced automated hippocampal segmentation for volumetric analysis. Compared to HC, TRD patients showed reduced right-hemisphere CA2/3 subfield volume. Determining biomarkers for TRD pathophysiology may elucidate the underlying mechanisms of treatment-resistant depression.

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Zirun Wang¹, Yasser Alemán Gómez², Martine Cleusix², Raoul Jenni², Luis Alameda², Philippe Conus³, Merixell Bach Cuadra^4,5, Patric Hagmann⁶, Kim Q. Do², and Lijing Xin^1
1Animal imaging and technology core (AIT), Center for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, ²Department of Psychiatry, Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland, ³Service of General Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁴Center for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM), Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁵Radiology Department, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁶Diagnostic Neuroradiology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland

Keywords: Psychiatric Disorders, Psychiatric Disorders, Early psychosis, First-episode schizophrenia

This study aims to investigate brain cortex alterations in early psychosis patients (n = 42) compared to healthy control subjects (n=35). Surface-based morphometric analysis using MP2RAGE images at 7T revealed significant clusters (corrected p<0.05) where the cortical area and cortex volume in early psychosis patients are reduced compared to healthy controls at the junction of lateral occipital, lingual and peri calcarine region at left hemisphere after permutation multiple comparison correction. Bilateral cortical areas, thickness, and volumes of the patients were reported to be changed at the surface vertex level.

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Tommaso Pavan^1,2, Yasser Alemán-Gómez^1,2, Raoul Jenni^2,3, Martine Cleusix^2,3, Luis Alameda^2,4, Kim Quang Do Cuenod^2,3, Philippe Conus^2,4, Paul Klauser^2,5, Patric Hagmann^1,2, and Ileana Jelescu^1,2
1Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland, ²University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland, ³Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁴General Psychiatry Service, Treatment and Early Intervention in Psychosis Program (TIPP-Lausanne), Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁵Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience and Service of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland

Keywords: Psychiatric Disorders, Microstructure, Schizophrenia, Neuroinflammation, Neurodegeneration, Microstructure, Diffusion, White Matter, Grey Matter

In schizophrenia, widespread brain abnormalities are commonly reported but not the microstructure alterations. Here, we investigate brain microstructure during early psychosis and schizophrenia using DKI (in GM & WM), a clinically feasible extension of DTI, and we apply the White Matter Tract Integrity – Watson (WMTI-W, WM only) model. In WM, extensive alterations, consistent with demyelination, were found in early psychosis, while transitioning to chronic schizophrenia, microstructure changes become region-specific as indicated by the two ROI-dependent trends of disease progression found in this cohort. GM showed increased diffusivities and decreased kurtosis, but not widespread as in WM.

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Peter B Barker¹, Cykyra B Thomas¹, Dillip K Senapati¹, İpek B Özdemir¹, Semra Etyemez², Mark B Yoon¹, Vidya B Kamath¹, and Jennifer M Coughlin^1
1JHU SOM, Baltimore, MD, United States, ²Obstetrics & Gynecology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, United States

Keywords: Psychiatric Disorders, Psychiatric Disorders, 7T, MRS, Schizophrenia, Metabolism, Glutamine

It has previously been shown that brain glutamine (Gln) may be elevated is some patients with schizophrenia (Sz), and associated with cognitive deficits. Underlying causes of Gln elevation in Sz are unclear, but may be related to increased blood ammonia (NH3) levels. Brain Gln was measured in 12 subjects (5 Sz, 7 healthy controls (HC)) using 7T MR spectroscopy; brain Gln was found to correlate with blood NH3 levels (p < 0.05). and negatively correlate with measures of cognitive performance. This preliminary study therefore supports the hypothesis linking blood ammonia, brain Gln and cognitive performance.

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Dafa Shi¹, Haoran Zhang¹, Guangsong Wang¹, Xiang Yao¹, Yanfei Li¹, Siyuan Wang¹, and Ke Ren^1
1Department of Radiology, Xiang’an Hospital of Xiamen Uneversity,School of Medicine, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China

Keywords: Psychiatric Disorders, fMRI (resting state)

Quantifiable biomarkers are urgently required to explore the potential physiological mechanism of schizophrenia and improve its diagnostic accuracy. Resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI)-based radiomics analysis obtained great classification performance, and it could be generalized to different brain atlases. The regions that we identified as discriminative features mainly included bilateral dorsal caudate and front-parietal, somato-motor, limbic, and default mode networks. Our findings showed that radiomics-based machine learning method could facilitate us to understand the potential pathological mechanism of schizophrenia more comprehensively and contribute to the accurate diagnosis of patients with schizophrenia.

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Marisleydis Garcia-Saborit^1,2,3, Carlos Milovic^3,4, Camilo Villaman⁵, Eduardo Perez-Palma⁶, Gabriela Repetto⁶, Nicolas Crossley^3,7, and Cristian Tejos^1,2,3
1Department of Electrical Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile, ²Biomedical Imaging Center, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile, ³Millennium Institute for Intelligent Healthcare Engineering, Santiago, Chile, ⁴School of Electrical Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Valparaiso, Chile, ⁵Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics, School of Sciences, Universidad Mayor, Santiago, Chile, ⁶Center for Genetics and Genomics, School of Medicine, Clinica Alemana Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile, ⁷Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

Keywords: Psychiatric Disorders, Brain, dopamine, neuromelanin, genetics

We evaluated a cohort of subject with unusual and psychotic experiences and control subjects obtained from the UK Biobank, and we studied the relationship between susceptibility (QSM) in deep brain nuclei and polygenic risk scores (PRS) of genetic variants associated to psychosis. Although we found significant differences between patients and controls for QSM and PRS, we did not find any relationship between these two variables.

Yuanqiang Zhu¹, Chen Wang¹, Fan Guo¹, and Yingjuan Chang^1
1Air Force Medical University, Xi'an, China

Keywords: Psychiatric Disorders, Neuroscience

Stronger tract strengths of the bilateral striatum with dlPFC were detected in schizophrenia patients. Our result provided system-level insights into abnormal connectivity strength of striatal circuits in schizophrenia patients. And the strength might have potential as neuroimaging biomarkers for positive symptoms.

Chenyang Yao^1,2, Youjin Zhao^1,2, Kai Ai³, Bo Zhang⁴, and Lui Su^1,2,5
1Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China, ²Research Unit of Psychoradiology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Chengdu, China, ³Philips Healthcare, Xi'an, China, ⁴Mental Health Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China, ⁵Functional and Molecular Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu, China

Keywords: Psychiatric Disorders, Neuroscience, schizophrenia, cerebellum, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)

To investigate the cerebellar GABA-mediated cerebral functional networks, we measured cerebellar basal and stimulus-activated GABA content in schizophrenia patients (SCZ) and healthy controls (HC) with cerebellar transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). We utilized graph theory to calculate global and regional property changes of cerebral functional networks and their correlations with cerebellar GABA at baseline and after TMS. The results show significant increase of the global efficiency, nodal clustering coefficient of left ventral attention network (VAN) after TMS in SCZ. This provides new molecular evidence for neuropathology of cerebellum dysfunction in SCZ and reveal potential interaction with cerebral functional networks.

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Shilin Sun¹, Shu Xiao¹, Jiaying Gong², Guixian Tang¹, Long Qian³, and Ying Wang^1
1Medical Imaging Center, First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, China, ²Department of Radiology, Six Afliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, ³MR Research, GE Healthcare, Beijing, China

Keywords: Psychiatric Disorders, Brain, Schizophrenia; Cortical thickness; Surface-based morphometry; Meta-Analysis

Numerous neuroimaging studies have revealed abnormalities in specific brain regions in schizophrenia (SCZ), but results have been inconsistent. We conducted a whole-brain meta-analysis on surface-based morphometry studies between patients with SCZ and healthy controls by using the Seed-based d Mapping with Permutation of Subject Images (SDM-PSI) software. The meta-analysis demonstrated that SCZ exhibits abnormalities in cortical thickness in the inferior frontal gyrus, insula, and superior temporal gyrus. The results expand the current understanding of cortical thickness abnormalities in patients with SCZ, which would provide promising targets for therapeutic intervention.

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Jiarui Zheng¹, Xueying Huang², Yuhui Xiong³, Wenfu Ma¹, and Xiaodong Wang^2
1Ningxia Medical University, Ningxia, China, ²General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University, Ningxia, China, ³GE Healthcare MR Research, Beijing, China, Beijing, China

Keywords: Psychiatric Disorders, Brain, Minimal hepatic encephalopathy cognition

Artificial liver support is an increasingly important intermediate step in the treatment of patients with liver failure. Yet there is still a lack of imaging studies to evaluate the efficacy of artificial liver support (especially on cognitive function of MHE). This study sought to evaluate the temporal variability of ReHo in the brain spontaneous activity after artificial liver support and correlated it with the PHES.We found that the dReHo in the right superior frontal gyrus decreased and were negatively correlated with NCT-A and positively correlated with DST.Dynamic regional indexes might be a novel neuro-imaging biomarker for artificial liver efficacy evaluation.

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Stephanie S. G. Brown¹, Margaret Westwater², Jakob Seidlitz³, Hisham Ziauddeen¹, and Paul Fletcher^1
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom, ²University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, ³University Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Keywords: Psychiatric Disorders, Segmentation, OBESITY

The hypothalamus plays a major role in appetite regulation via well-defined orexigenic and anorexigenic pathways. Perturbation of these pathways is known to alter feeding behaviour and body mass. Using an automated technique, we segmented the hypothalamus in 1299 young adults with variation in body mass index (BMI). We showed that in participants who were overweight or obese, the hypothalamus and constituent nuclei were significantly increased in volume compared to those of a healthy weight. Further, these volume increases are predominantly localised to the arcuate and paraventricular nuclei, which form the core of the neuroendocrine appetite maintenance system. 

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Arne Doose¹, Alexander P. Lin², Tyler Chazan Starr², Katherine M. Breedlove², Jennifer Linn³, and Stefan Ehrlich^1,4
1Translational Developmental Neuroscience Section, Division of Psychological and Social Medicine and Developmental Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany, Dresden, Germany, ²Center for Clinical Spectroscopy, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA USA 02115, Boston, MA, United States, ³Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, Technical University, Dresden, Dresden, Germany, Dresden, Germany, ⁴Eating Disorder Research and Treatment Center, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany, Dresden, Germany

Keywords: Psychiatric Disorders, Spectroscopy, Brain temperature

In anorexia nervosa (AN) restrictive food intake leads to a slowed metabolism.  Brain temperature, can provide information about brain metabolism. Difference between Magnetic Resonance Spectrum peaks (Δ_H20-NAA) provide a proxy for brain temperature in 30 AN and 30 healthy control (HC) participants. We found no group differences in brain temperature between AN/HC. Further, we report no group differences in brain temperature between a subgroup of the AN participants with the lowest BMI/body temperature compared to a subsample with higher BMI/body temperature. The results suggest a prioritization of brain metabolism in AN in line with the selfish brain hypothesis.      

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Balázs Örzsik^1,2, Amy Kartar², Toru Horinouchi², Samira Bouyagoub², Brittany Anderson³, Duncan Bailey⁴, Hugo Critchley², Yoko Nagai², Iris Asllani^2,5, and Alessandro Colasanti^2
1Radiology, Leiden Univeristy Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands, ²Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Brighton, United Kingdom, ³Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, United States, ⁴Brighton BodyTalk, Brighton, United Kingdom, ⁵Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, United States

Keywords: Psychiatric Disorders, Perfusion

‘Breathwork’ is pursued by a rapidly growing set of adherents, anecdotally because it evokes psychedelic experiences that positively effect mood. We measured regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) during high-ventilation breathwork (HVB) in healthy participants. Furthermore, we assessed the relationship between rCBF changes and subjective experience, focusing on altered state of consciousness. HVB was associated with substantial global reduction in CBF. Moreover, reduction in rCBF in anterior cingulate and insular cortices scaled with intensity of subjective experiences. These brain regions are implicated in supporting interoceptive control underlying affective regulation. Understanding the neural effects of HVB can inform new clinical applications.

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Junghwa Kang¹, Tea Young Lee², and Yoonho Nam^1
1Department of Biomedical engineering, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Yongin, Korea, Republic of, ²Department of Neuropsychiatry, Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital, Yangsan, Korea, Republic of

Keywords: Psychiatric Disorders, Psychiatric Disorders, neuromelanin, bias field correction

Neuromelanin-sensitive MR imaging is an indirect method for assessing dopamine function. However, quantitative and objective analysis of NM-MRI is difficult because of field inhomogeneities or motion artifacts. To investigate the effect of nonunifrom bias field on quantitative analysis in NM-MRI, synthesized random bias fields were multiplied and compared the quantitative analysis using SN ROIs and reference ROIs. The results show a weak nonuniform bias field can reduce the reliability of quantitative analysis.

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Oun Al-iedani^1,2, James Brown-Miles², Jameen Arm², Tony Butler³, Shiami Luchow², Claudia Hillenbrand⁴, Peter W Schofield⁵, and Saadallah Ramadan^2,6
1School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia, ²Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton Heights, Australia, ³School of Population Health, UNSW, Sydney, Australia, ⁴Research Imaging New South Wales, Division of Research & Enterprise, UNSW, Sydney, Australia, ⁵School of Medicine and Public Health, College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia, ⁶School of Health Sciences, College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia

Keywords: Psychiatric Disorders, Brain

Despite GABA implication in the regulation of aggression, the effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) on GABA and Glx in an impulsive-aggressive population is yet to be explored. Seven repeat-offenders were treated with Sertraline and underwent MRI/MRS scans pre- and post-treatment (3-4 weeks of treatment). No significant changes (p≥0.05) in ACC-GABA+ or ACC-Glx were reported. Significant reduction in ACC-Glx/tCr (p=0.02) and increase in ACC-NAA (p=0.05) were found, while MM09+L09 increase approached significance (p=0.06).  Further investigation is warranted. SSRIs clearly exert secondary effects on Glx levels in the ACC, with possible effects on NAA and MM09+L09.

Xipeng Yue¹, Yu Shen¹, Ying Li², Ge Zhang¹, Xiaochen Li¹, Wei Wei¹, Yan Bai¹, Jiapei Xie¹, Xinhui Wang¹, Zhi Luo¹, Xianchang Zhang³, and Meiyun Wang*^1,4
1Department of Medical Imaging, Henan Provincial People’s Hospital, ZhengZhou, China, ²Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Henan Provincial People’s Hospital, ZhengZhou, China, ³MR Collaboration, Siemens Healthineers Ltd., Beijing, China, ⁴Laboratory of Brain Science and Brain-Like Intelligence Technology, Institute for Integrated Medical Science and Engineering, ZhengZhou, China

Keywords: Psychiatric Disorders, fMRI (resting state)

Most neuroimaging studies investigating autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have focused on static brain function and used children as research subjects. However, this study investigated dynamic changes of regional neural function in adult ASD patients. Significant differences in dynamic regional homogeneity (dReHo) and dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (dALFF) were observed based on resting state fMRI in several brain areas, such as the left middle/inferior temporal gyrus and left middle occipital gyrus. A significant correlation was found between clinical scores and the dReHo/dALFF values. These results suggested that dynamic regional brain function might be helpful in understanding neural mechanisms in ASD .

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Jeff Stainsby¹, Andrew Curtis¹, Sofia Chavez¹, and Chad Harris^1
1MR, Synaptive Medical, Toronto, ON, Canada

Keywords: Psychiatric Disorders, Contrast Mechanisms, Neuromelanin

Mid-field imaging benefits from increased T1 tissue differentiation and reduced SAR constraints for generating MT contrast. These were leveraged in imaging of neuromelanin containing structures at 0.5T. Elevated T1 values in the substantia nigra and locus coeruleus were demonstrated. Contrary to T1-weighted approaches reported in the literature a proton density weighted fast spin echo approach is shown to provide improved visualization at mid-field and implies modified strategies at higher field would be beneficial.

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Chengmin Yang¹, Li Yao¹, Jiajun Liu², Zhipeng Yang², and Su Lui^1
1Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Functional and molecular imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Department of Radiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China., Chengdu, China, ²College of Electronic Engineering, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu, P.R. China., Chengdu, China

Keywords: Psychiatric Disorders, Gradients

By combining the brain hierarchy changes and their likely potential molecular signatures, we found that the compression of the cortical hierarchy organization in deficit schizophrenia (NS) and non-deficit schizophrenia (NDS) with neurochemical correlates. The altered functional gradients were spatially positively correlated with the receptor of 5-HT2a in DS patients, while negatively correlated with receptor of D1/2 in NDS patients, which revealed the underlying physiological mechanisms of the heterogeneity in schizophrenia.