Changes in cerebellar functional connectivity and anatomical connectivity in schizophrenia: A combined resting-state functional MRI and diffusion tensor imaging study

Purpose—To study the differences of functional connectivity and anatomical connectivity of the cerebellum between schizophrenic patients and normal controls by combining resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) method. Materials and Methods—Both fMRI during rest and DTI were performed on 10 patients and 10 healthy subjects at a GE 3.0 T Signa scanner. Resting-state functional connectivities of the bilateral cerebellum were separately analyzed by selecting seed regions in cerebellum. The integrity of white matter fiber in bilateral middle cerebellar peduncles (MCP) and superior cerebellar peduncles (SCP) was evaluated using fractional anisotropy (FA). Two sample t-test was used to detect differences between patients and normal controls, and correlation test was taken to analyze the correlation between the strength of functional connectivity and anatomical connectivity. Results—In patients with schizophrenia, the bilateral cerebellum showed reduced functional connectivities to some regions compared to controls, such as left middle temporal gyrus, bilateral middle cingulate cortex, right paracentral lobule, right thalamus, and bilateral cerebellum, and the FA of the left SCP was significantly reduced in patients. Meanwhile, There was significantly positive correlation between the connective strength of both the left cerebellum-right paracentral lobule connectivities and right cerebellum-right thalamus connectivities and the FA of the MCP within the control group. Conslusion—The multimodal imaging approaches presently used provide a new avenue to understand the role of cerebellum in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Meanwhile, the current findings of the functional disconnectivity and damaged anatomical connectivity between the cerrebullum and other regions in schizophrenia suggest that the functional–anatomical relationship need to be further investigated.