Using support vector machine to explore the difference of function connection between deficit and non-deficit schizophrenia based on gray matter volume.

Objective: Schizophrenia can be divided into deficient schizophrenia (DS) and non-deficient schizophrenia (NDS) according to the presence of primary and persistent negative symptoms. So far, there are few studies that have explored the differences in functional connectivity (FC) between the different subtypes based on the region of interest (ROI) from GMV (Gray matter volume), especially since the characteristics of brain networks are still unknown. This study aimed to investigate the alterations of functional connectivity between DS and NDS based on the ROI obtained by machine learning algorithms and differential GMV. Then, the relationships between the alterations and the clinical symptoms were analyzed. In addition, the thalamic functional connection imbalance in the two groups was further explored.

Methods: A total of 16 DS, 31 NDS, and 38 health controls (HC) underwent resting-state fMRI scans, patient group will further be evaluated by clinical scales including the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS), and the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS). Based on GMV image data, a support vector machine (SVM) is used to classify DS and NDS. Brain regions with high weight in the classification were used as seed points in whole-brain FC analysis and thalamic FC imbalance analysis. Finally, partial correlation analysis explored the relationships between altered FC and clinical scale in the two subtypes.

Results: The relatively high classification accuracy is obtained based on the SVM. Compared to HC, the FC increased between the right inferior parietal lobule (IPL.R) bilateral thalamus, and lingual gyrus, and between the right inferior temporal gyrus (ITG.R) and the Salience Network (SN) in NDS. The FC between the right thalamus (THA.R) and Visual network (VN), between ITG.R and right superior occipital gyrus in the DS group was higher than that in HC. Furthermore, compared with NDS, the FC between the ITG.R and the left superior and middle frontal gyrus decreased in the DS group. The thalamic FC imbalance, which is characterized by frontotemporal-THA.R hypoconnectivity and sensory motor network (SMN)-THA.R hyperconnectivity was found in both subtypes. The FC value of THA.R and SMN was negatively correlated with the SANS score in the DS group but positively correlated with the SAPS score in the NDS group.

Conclusion: Using an SVM classification method and based on an ROI from GMV, we highlighted the difference in functional connectivity between DS and NDS from the local to the brain network, which provides new information for exploring the neural physiopathology of the two subtypes of schizophrenic.