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Objective: The symptom-related neurobiology characteristic of schizophrenia in the brain from a network perspective is still poorly understood, leading to a lack of potential biologically-based markers and difficulty identifying therapeutic targets. We aim to test the dysregulated cross-network interactions among the Salience Network (SN), Central Executive Network (CEN) and Default Mode Network (DMN) and how they contributed to different symptoms in schizophrenia patients.Methods: We examined network interactions among the SN, CEN and DMN in 76 patients with schizophrenia vs. 80 well-matched controls using dynamic causal modeling (DCM). We further analyzed the relation between network dynamics and Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS).Results: We observed that the DMN, CEN and SN across healthy controls and schizophrenia patients showed several similarities within or between-network pattern in the resting state. Comparing schizophrenia to controls, SN-centered cross-network interactions were most significantly reduced. Crucially, the strength of connections from CEN subnetwork 1 to DMN subnetwork 1 was positively correlated with the Positive Score of PANSS. The connection from the DMN subnetwork 2 to CEN subnetwork 2 was negatively correlated with the Negative Score of PANSS.Conclusions: Our study provides strong evidence for the dysregulation among SN, CEN and DMN in a triple-network perspective in schizophrenia. The connection between DMN and CEN could be clinically-relevant neurobiological signature of schizophrenia symptoms. Our study indicated that the description of brain triple network hypothesis could be a novel and possible bio-marker for schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The association between abnormal gut microbiome composition and depression is well established. However, the composition and functional capacity of the gut microbiota regarding depressed women has been poorly addressed.Methods: Stool samples from 62 female patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and 46 healthy controls (Con) were analyzed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing; Twenty fecal samples from the patient group and 21 fecal samples from the Con group were further analyzed by shotgun metagenomic sequencing. Psychiatric symptoms and psychological, social, and professional functioning was also assessed.Results: Phylum Bacteroidetes, proteobaeteria, and Fusobacteria were greatly enriched in patients with MDD, while the Firmicutes and Actinobacteria phyla were consistently higher in Con. Notably, 18 microbial markers were identified on a random forest model and achieve an area under the curve of 0.92 between patients with MDD and the Con group. Forty-five species and their associated function were identified with statistically significant differences between patients with MDD and the Con group.Limitations: The number of recruited samples, especially samples enrolled for shotgun metagenomic sequencing was relatively small, and the stool samples were collected only at baseline, making it difficult to establish a causal association between changes in gut microbiota compositions and disease remission.Conclusions: This study characterizes the gut microbiota and their related function in female MDD. The gut microbiota-based biomarkers may be helpful in diagnosis and the altered gut microbial metabolites may contribute to the pathogenesis of MDD in women, representing potential microbial targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) are one of the cardinal symptoms of schizophrenia (SZ). Cerebral dysfunction may represent pathophysiological underpinnings behind AVHs in SZ. However, regional and network functional deficits for AVHs in SZ remain to be identified. Methods: Seventeen medication-naïve first-episode SZ patients with AVHs, 15 without AVHs, and 19 healthy controls (HCs) were studied using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. We compared the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) and regional homogeneity (ReHo) among these subjects. Areas with both ALFF and ReHo alterations were used as seeds in functional connectivity (FC) analysis. Then we performed correlation analysis between image measures and symptoms and receiver operating characteristic analysis. Results: One-way analysis of variance showed significant differences of ALFF and ReHo in the bilateral putamen, thereby being used as seeds. SZ patients with AVHs showed decreased ALFF in the left putamen, increased ReHo in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and increased right putamen-seeded FC with the left DLPFC and Broca's area relative to those without AVHs. Furthermore, the increased strength of the connectivity between the right putamen and left Broca's area correlated with the severity of SZ symptoms. Both patient groups demonstrated hypoconnectivity within frontal/parietal/temporal cortico-striatal-cerebellar networks compared with HCs. Conclusion: AVHs in SZ may be caused by abnormal regional function in the putamen and prefrontal cortex, as well as hyperconnectivity between them. The putamen-related regional and network functional deficits may reflect imbalance in neuromodulation of AVHs in SZ. Furthermore, dysconnectivity within cortico-striatal-cerebellar networks might subserve the pathogenesis of SZ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]