Psychotic disorders are characterized by the presence of symptoms related to a distortion of one’s perception of reality. In its early stages (First Episode of Psychosis,
FEP), patients may show diffuse symptomatology that lays in a spectrum delimited
by bipolarity and schizophrenia on both ends. Some studies point to a disconnection
of the brain as a network as the most likely cause of the symptoms of the disease.
Functional connectivity (FC) arises from the interaction of neurometabolites and ...
Psychotic disorders are characterized by the presence of symptoms related to a distortion of one’s perception of reality. In its early stages (First Episode of Psychosis,
FEP), patients may show diffuse symptomatology that lays in a spectrum delimited
by bipolarity and schizophrenia on both ends. Some studies point to a disconnection
of the brain as a network as the most likely cause of the symptoms of the disease.
Functional connectivity (FC) arises from the interaction of neurometabolites and a
structural substrate, and inferring the contribution of each of these elements is not
possible using traditional approaches. Accordingly, we aimed to explore the structural connectivity and use of simulations to infer the synaptic contribution of the
emerging FC in FEP patients. First, structural connectivity from diffusion-weighted
images was obtained and compared between Healthy Controls (HC), Affective Psychoses (AF), and Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders. Second, synaptic-level properties, such as global connectivity, were inferred per subject based on Hopf-Bifurcation
by selecting the parameters that produce the closest FC simulated to the experimental FC. Finally, a comparison of the extracted measures between the three groups
was performed. The obtained results showed differences in the substrate of the three
groups, with AF being the one with larger disparities from HC. As for the simulations, there were no differences for the global connectivities that generated the most
accurate representation; however, for AF the similarity of the simulated static FC
was lower to experimental static FC, which could suggest a higher neurometabolic
contribution for this group.
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