Functional brain networks in clinical high-risk for bipolar disorder and psychosis.

Abnormal connectivity in the brain has been linked to the pathophysiology of severe mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The current study aimed to investigate large-scale functional networks and global network metrics in clinical high-risk for bipolardisorder (CHR-BD, n = 25), clinical high-risk for psychosis (CHR-P, n = 30), and healthy controls (HCs, n = 19). Help-seeking youth at CHR-BD and CHR-P were recruited from the early intervention program at Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey.

Retina in Clinical High-Risk and First-Episode Psychosis.

Background And Hypothesis: Abnormalities in the retina are observed in psychotic disorders, especially in schizophrenia.

Study Design: Using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography, we investigated structural retinal changes in relatively metabolic risk-free youth with clinical high-risk (CHR, n = 34) and first-episode psychosis (FEP, n = 30) compared with healthy controls (HCs, n = 28).

Study Results: Total retinal macular thickness/volume of the right eye increased in FEP (effect sizes, Cohen's d = 0.

Automated linguistic analysis in youth at clinical high risk for psychosis.

Identifying individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis (CHRP) is crucial for preventing psychosis and improving the prognosis for schizophrenia. Individuals at CHR-P may exhibit mild forms of formal thought disorder (FTD), making it possible to identify them using natural language processing (NLP) methods. In this study, speech samples of 62 CHR-P individuals and 45 healthy controls (HCs) were elicited using Thematic Apperception Test images.

Effort-based decision-making in ultra-high-risk for psychosis and bipolar disorder.

Background: Effort-based decision-making has been proposed as a potential mechanism contributing to transdiagnostic motivational deficits in psychotic disorder and bipolar disorder. However, very limited information is available about deficits in effort-cost-decision-making in the early stages of psychotic disorder and no study has investigated effort allocation deficits before the onset of bipolar disorder. Our aim was to investigate effort-based-decision-making in ultra-high-risk for psychosis (UHR-P) and bipolar disorder (UHR-BD).

Computational analysis of linguistic features in speech samples of first-episode bipolar disorder and psychosis.

Background: In recent years, automated analyses using novel NLP methods have been used to investigate language abnormalities in schizophrenia. In contrast, only a few studies used automated language analyses in bipolar disorder. To our knowledge, no previous research compared automated language characteristics of first-episode psychosis (FEP) and bipolar disorder (FEBD) using NLP methods.

The relationship between childhood trauma, psychotic symptoms, and cognitive schemas in patients with schizophrenia, their siblings, and healthy controls: results from the EU-GEI study.

Background: The relationship between childhood trauma (CT) and psychotic symptoms in patients with schizophrenia (SCZ), and subthreshold psychotic experiences in non-clinical populations is well-established. However, little is known about the relationship between subtypes of trauma and specific symptoms in patients, their siblings, and controls. It is also not clear which variables mediate the relationship between trauma and psychotic symptoms.

Neurocognition and social cognition in youth and young adults at ultra-high-risk for psychosis and bipolar disorder.

Background: Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are associated with significant deficits in neurocognition and social cognition. Unlike the studies in chronic stages of these disorders, very limited information is available regarding neurocognitive and social-cognitive impairment before the onset of bipolar disorder. Our main aim was to investigate the differences in neurocognition and social cognition between individuals at ultra-high risk for psychosis (UHR-P) and bipolar disorder (UHR-BD).

Social cognition and neurocognition in first-episode bipolar disorder and psychosis: The effect of negative and attenuated positive symptoms.

Background: Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are associated with neurocognitive and social-cognitive impairments. To date very few studies investigated social cognition in first-episode bipolar disorder (FEBD). Our main aim was to investigate the differences in social cognition and neurocognition between FEBD and first-episode psychosis (FEP).

Neural correlates of mental state decoding and mental state reasoning in schizophrenia.

Theory of mind skills are disrupted in schizophrenia. However, various theory of mind tasks measure different neurocognitive domains. This multimodal neuroimaging study aimed to investigate the neuroanatomical correlates of mental state decoding and reasoning components of theory of mind in schizophrenia and healthy controls (HCs) using T1-weighted and diffusion-weighted (DTI) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Antisaccade and memory-guided saccade in individuals at ultra-high-risk for bipolar disorder.

Background: Ultra-high-risk for bipolar disorder (UHR-BD) is an important paradigm to investigate the potential early-stage biomarkers of bipolar disorder, including eye-tracking abnormalities and cognitive functions. Antisaccade (AS) described as looking in the opposite direction of the target, and memory-guided saccade (MGS), identified as maintaining fixation, and remembering the location of the target, were used in this study. The aim of this study was to evaluate the differences in saccadic eye movements between UHR-BD and healthy controls (HCs) via AS-MGS.

Deficits in Analytic and Common-Sense Reasoning in Schizophrenia.

Human rationality has a dual nature including analytic and common-sense thinking. Symptoms of schizophrenia have been suggested to be related to deficits in these aspects of logical reasoning. However, empirical studies investigating logical reasoning errors in schizophrenia and their clinical and neurocognitive correlates are scarce.

Abnormal Structural Network Communication Reflects Cognitive Deficits in Schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia has long been thought to be a disconnection syndrome and several previous studies have reported widespread abnormalities in white matter tracts in individuals with schizophrenia. Furthermore, reductions in structural connectivity may also impair communication between anatomically unconnected pairs of brain regions, potentially impacting global signal traffic in the brain. Therefore, we used different communication models to examine direct and indirect structural connections (polysynaptic) communication in large-scale brain networks in schizophrenia.

Choroidal structural analysis in ultra-high risk and first-episode psychosis.

Both structural and functional alterations in the retina and the choroid of the eye, as parts of the central nervous system, have been shown in psychotic disorders, especially in schizophrenia. In addition, genetic and imaging studies indicate vascular and angiogenesis anomalies in the psychosis spectrum disorders. In this ocular imaging study, choroidal structure and vascularity were investigated using enhanced depth imaging (EDI) optical coherence tomography (OCT) in first-episode psychosis (FEP), ultra-high risk for psychosis (UHR-P), and age- and gender- matched healthy controls (HCs).

The association between cannabis use and facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia, siblings, and healthy controls: Results from the EUGEI study.

Schizophrenia is frequently accompanied with social cognitive disturbances. Cannabis represents one established environmental factor associated with the onset and progression of schizophrenia. The present cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the association of facial emotion recognition (FER) performance with cannabis use in 2039 patients with schizophrenia, 2141 siblings, and 2049 healthy controls (HC).

Referential noun phrases distribute differently in Turkish speakers with schizophrenia.

In all human languages, noun phrases (NPs) (e.g., 'a field', 'the woman with a book') are used to identify entities in discourse.

Negative symptoms are associated with modularity and thalamic connectivity in schizophrenia.

Negative symptoms, including avolition, anhedonia, asociality, blunted affect and alogia are associated with poor long-term outcome and functioning. However, treatment options for negative symptoms are limited and neurobiological mechanisms underlying negative symptoms in schizophrenia are still poorly understood. Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging scans were acquired from 64 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and 35 controls.

Examining facial emotion recognition as an intermediate phenotype for psychosis: Findings from the EUGEI study.

Background: Social cognition impairments, such as facial emotion recognition (FER), have been acknowledged since the earliest description of schizophrenia. Here, we tested FER as an intermediate phenotype for psychosis using two approaches that are indicators of genetic risk for schizophrenia: the proxy-genetic risk approach (family design) and the polygenic risk score for schizophrenia (PRS-SCZ).

Methods: The sample comprised 2039 individuals with schizophrenia, 2141 siblings, and 2049 healthy controls (HC).

Examining the association between exposome score for schizophrenia and functioning in schizophrenia, siblings, and healthy controls: Results from the EUGEI study.

Background: A cumulative environmental exposure score for schizophrenia (exposome score for schizophrenia [ES-SCZ]) may provide potential utility for risk stratification and outcome prediction. Here, we investigated whether ES-SCZ was associated with functioning in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder, unaffected siblings, and healthy controls.

Methods: This cross-sectional sample consisted of 1,261 patients, 1,282 unaffected siblings, and 1,525 healthy controls.

Cognitive functioning throughout adulthood and illness stages in individuals with psychotic disorders and their unaffected siblings.

Important questions remain about the profile of cognitive impairment in psychotic disorders across adulthood and illness stages. The age-associated profile of familial impairments also remains unclear, as well as the effect of factors, such as symptoms, functioning, and medication. Using cross-sectional data from the EU-GEI and GROUP studies, comprising 8455 participants aged 18 to 65, we examined cognitive functioning across adulthood in patients with psychotic disorders (n = 2883), and their unaffected siblings (n = 2271), compared to controls (n = 3301).

Examining the independent and joint effects of genomic and exposomic liabilities for schizophrenia across the psychosis spectrum.

Aims: Psychosis spectrum disorder has a complex pathoetiology characterised by interacting environmental and genetic vulnerabilities. The present study aims to investigate the role of gene-environment interaction using aggregate scores of genetic (polygenic risk score for schizophrenia (PRS-SCZ)) and environment liability for schizophrenia (exposome score for schizophrenia (ES-SCZ)) across the psychosis continuum.

Methods: The sample consisted of 1699 patients, 1753 unaffected siblings, and 1542 healthy comparison participants.

Evidence, and replication thereof, that molecular-genetic and environmental risks for psychosis impact through an affective pathway.

Background: There is evidence that environmental and genetic risk factors for schizophrenia spectrum disorders are transdiagnostic and mediated in part through a generic pathway of affective dysregulation.

Methods: We analysed to what degree the impact of schizophrenia polygenic risk (PRS-SZ) and childhood adversity (CA) on psychosis outcomes was contingent on co-presence of affective dysregulation, defined as significant depressive symptoms, in (i) NEMESIS-2 ( = 6646), a representative general population sample, interviewed four times over nine years and (ii) EUGEI ( = 4068) a sample of patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder, the siblings of these patients and controls.

Results: The impact of PRS-SZ on psychosis showed significant dependence on co-presence of affective dysregulation in NEMESIS-2 [relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI): 1.

A replication study of JTC bias, genetic liability for psychosis and delusional ideation.

Background: This study attempted to replicate whether a bias in probabilistic reasoning, or 'jumping to conclusions'(JTC) bias is associated with being a sibling of a patient with schizophrenia spectrum disorder; and if so, whether this association is contingent on subthreshold delusional ideation.

Methods: Data were derived from the EUGEI project, a 25-centre, 15-country effort to study psychosis spectrum disorder. The current analyses included 1261 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder, 1282 siblings of patients and 1525 healthy comparison subjects, recruited in Spain (five centres), Turkey (three centres) and Serbia (one centre).

White Noise Speech Illusions: A Trait-Dependent Risk Marker for Psychotic Disorder?

White noise speech illusions index liability for psychotic disorder in case-control comparisons. In the current study, we examined i) the rate of white noise speech illusions in siblings of patients with psychotic disorder and ii) to what degree this rate would be contingent on exposure to known environmental risk factors (childhood adversity and recent life events) and level of known endophenotypic dimensions of psychotic disorder [psychotic experiences assessed with the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE) scale and cognitive ability]. The white noise task was used as an experimental paradigm to elicit and measure speech illusions in 1,014 patients with psychotic disorders, 1,157 siblings, and 1,507 healthy participants.

Estimating Exposome Score for Schizophrenia Using Predictive Modeling Approach in Two Independent Samples: The Results From the EUGEI Study.

Exposures constitute a dense network of the environment: exposome. Here, we argue for embracing the exposome paradigm to investigate the sum of nongenetic "risk" and show how predictive modeling approaches can be used to construct an exposome score (ES; an aggregated score of exposures) for schizophrenia. The training dataset consisted of patients with schizophrenia and controls, whereas the independent validation dataset consisted of patients, their unaffected siblings, and controls.