Systematically Mapping Gray Matter Abnormal Patterns in Drug-Naïve First-Episode Schizophrenia from Childhood to Adolescence

BACKGROUND:Schizophrenia originates early in neurodevelopment, underscoring the need to elaborate on anomalies in the still maturing brain of early-onset schizophrenia (EOS).METHODS:Gray matter (GM) volumes were evaluated in 94 antipsychotic-naïve first-episode EOS patients and 100 typically developing (TD) controls. The anatomical profiles of changing GM deficits in EOS were detected using 2-way analyses of variance with diagnosis and age as factors, and its timing was further charted using stage-specific group comparisons. Interregional relationships of GM alterations were established using structural covariance network analyses.RESULTS:Antagonistic interaction results suggested dynamic GM abnormalities of the left fusiform gyrus, inferior occipital gyrus, and lingual gyrus in EOS. These regions comprise a dominating part of the ventral stream, a ventral occipitotemporal (vOT) network engaged in early social information processing. GM abnormalities were mainly located in the vOT regions in childhood-onset patients, whereas in the rostral prefrontal cortex (rPFC) in adolescent-onset patients. Moreover, compared with TD controls, patients' GM synchronization with the ventral stream was disrupted in widespread high-order social perception regions including the rPFC and salience network.CONCLUSIONS:The current findings reveal age-related anatomical abnormalities of the social perception system in pediatric patients with schizophrenia.