5-HT7R enhances neuroimmune resilience and alleviates meningitis by promoting CCR5 ubiquitination.

INTRODUCTION: Excessive immune activation induces tissue damage during infection. Compared to external strategies to reconstruct immune homeostasis, host balancing ways remain largely unclear. OBJECTIVES: Here we found a neuroimmune way that prevents infection-induced tissue damage. METHODS: By FACS and histopathology analysis of brain Streptococcus pneumonia meningitis infection model and behavioral testing. Western blot, co-immunoprecipitation, and ubiquitination analyze the Fluoxetine initiate 5-HT7R-STUB1-CCR5 K48-linked ubiquitination degradation. RESULTS: Fluoxetine, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, or the agonist of serotonin receptor 5-HT7R, protects mice from meningitis by inhibiting CCR5-mediated excessive immune response and tissue damage. Mechanistically, the Fluoxetine-5-HT7R axis induces proteasome-dependent degradation of CCR5 via mTOR signaling, and then recruits STUB1, an E3 ubiquitin ligase, to initiate K48-linked polyubiquitination of CCR5 at K138 and K322, promotes its proteasomal degradation. STUB1 deficiency blocks 5-HT7R-mediated CCR5 degradation. CONCLUSION: Our results reveal a neuroimmune pathway that balances anti-infection immunity via happiness neurotransmitter receptor and suggest the 5-HT7R-CCR5 axis as a potential target to promote neuroimmune resilience.

Sleep deprivation changes frequency-specific functional organization of the resting human brain.

Previous resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) studies have widely explored the temporal connection changes in the human brain following long-term sleep deprivation (SD). However, the frequency-specific topological properties of sleep-deprived functional networks remain virtually unclear. In this study, thirty-seven healthy male subjects underwent resting-state fMRI during rested wakefulness (RW) and after 36 hours of SD, and we examined frequency-specific spectral connection changes (0.01-0.08 Hz, interval = 0.01 Hz) caused by SD. First, we conducted a multivariate pattern analysis combining linear SVM classifiers with a robust feature selection algorithm, and the results revealed that accuracies of 74.29%-84.29% could be achieved in the classification between RW and SD states in leave-one-out cross-validation at different frequency bands, moreover, the spectral connection at the lowest and highest frequency bands exhibited higher discriminative power. Connection involving the cingulo-opercular network increased most, while connection involving the default-mode network decreased most following SD. Then we performed a graph-theoretic analysis and observed reduced low-frequency modularity and high-frequency global efficiency in the SD state. Moreover, hub regions, which were primarily situated in the cerebellum and the cingulo-opercular network after SD, exhibited high discriminative power in the aforementioned classification consistently. The findings may indicate the frequency-dependent effects of SD on the functional network topology and its efficiency of information exchange, providing new insights into the impact of SD on the human brain.

DYNet: A Printed Book Detection Model Using Dual Kernel Neural Networks.

Target detection has always been a hotspot in image processing/computer vision research, and small-target detection is a frequently encountered problem in the field of target detection. With the continuous innovation of target detection technology, people always hope that the detection of small targets can reach the real-time accuracy of large-target detection. In this paper, a small-target detection model based on dual-core convolutional neural networks (CNN) is proposed, which is mainly used for the intelligent detection of books in the production line of printed books. The model is mainly composed of two modules, including a region prediction module and suspicious target search module. The region prediction module uses a CNN to predict suspicious region blocks in a large context. The suspicious target search module uses a different CNN from the above to find tiny targets in the predicted region blocks. Comparative testing of four small book target samples using this model shows that this model has better book small-target detection accuracy compared to other models.

Effects of acute stress on risky decision-making are related to neuroticism: An fMRI study of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task.

BACKGROUND: Decision making under acute stress is frequent in daily life. While evidence suggests for a modulatory role of neuroticism on risky decision-making behaviors, the neural correlates underlying the association between neuroticism and risky decision-making under acute stress remain to be elucidated. METHODS: Based on a modified Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) with concurrent functional magnetic resonance imaging, we evaluated the effect of acute stress on risk-taking behavior in 27 healthy male adults, and further assessed stress-induced changes in brain activation according to the individual differences in neuroticism. RESULTS: Higher trait neuroticism levels positively correlated with increased stress-modulated activation of the right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex during risk-taking, and negatively correlated with decreased stress-modulated activation of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during cash-outs. LIMITATIONS: Only male participants were recruited. CONCLUSIONS: We found a positive correlation between neuroticism and greater risk-taking behavior under acute stress. These results extend our understanding of the increased risk-taking propensity in high neurotic individuals under acute stress.

Toluene-mercuric modified USEPA Method 3060A to eliminate interference of sulfide-based reductants with Cr(VI) determination.

The validity of USEPA Method 3060A as universal Cr(VI) analysis method for remediated soil is controversial. We investigated soil Cr(VI) remediation performance by commonly used reductants (FeSO4, CaSx, Na2S) under different operating conditions (dosage, curing time and degree of mixing) using Method 3060A, and developed modified 3060A specific for sulfide-based reductants. Results showed that Cr(VI) was primarily removed during analysis stage rather than remediation stage. Thereinto, chemical dosage played a much more important role than curing time and degree of mixing. Besides, soil Cr(VI) concentration decreased to below the detection limit with residual reductant content increasing. Comparing standard and toluene-mercuric modified 3060A, Cr(VI) removal efficiency decreased from 100 % to 38.9-45.4 %, 67.1-68.8 % and 94.1-96.3 %, corresponding to mixing degree of 33 %, 67 % and 100 %, for treated soil using 1× and 2× the molar stoichiometric ratio of CaSx. Subsequently, the optimization mechanism was revealed. Elemental sulfur, remediation product of sulfide-based reductants, was removed from soil by toluene preventing its disproportionation to sulfide at Method 3060A stage. Sulfide was fixed by mercuric oxide in species of mercuric sulfide. This method also proved suitable for different types of soils. Therefore, an effective way for scientific evaluation of soil Cr(VI) remediation was provided in this study.

Hippocampus Parcellation via Discriminative Embedded Clustering of fMRI Functional Connectivity.

Dividing a pre-defined brain region into several heterogenous subregions is crucial for understanding its functional segregation and integration. Due to the high dimensionality of brain functional features, clustering is often postponed until dimensionality reduction in traditional parcellation frameworks occurs. However, under such stepwise parcellation, it is very easy to fall into the dilemma of local optimum since dimensionality reduction could not take into account the requirement of clustering. In this study, we developed a new parcellation framework based on the discriminative embedded clustering (DEC), combining subspace learning and clustering in a common procedure with alternative minimization adopted to approach global optimum. We tested the proposed framework in functional connectivity-based parcellation of the hippocampus. The hippocampus was parcellated into three spatial coherent subregions along the anteroventral-posterodorsal axis; the three subregions exhibited distinct functional connectivity changes in taxi drivers relative to non-driver controls. Moreover, compared with traditional stepwise methods, the proposed DEC-based framework demonstrated higher parcellation consistency across different scans within individuals. The study proposed a new brain parcellation framework with joint dimensionality reduction and clustering; the findings might shed new light on the functional plasticity of hippocampal subregions related to long-term navigation experience.

Soil Chromium Accumulation in Industrial Regions across China: Pollution and Health Risk Assessment, Spatial Pattern, and Temporal Trend (2002-2021).

This study conducted a nationwide specific assessment of soil chromium (Cr) contamination status in 506 of China's industrial regions. The overall soil Cr concentrations were 0.74-37,967.33 mg/kg, and the soil Cr content in 4.15% of the regions exceeded the reference screening value (2500 mg/kg). Geochemical accumulation index (Igeo) and monomial potential ecological risk index (E) revealed Cr salt production and tanning were the primary control industries. The non-carcinogenic risks posed by Cr salt production and tanning industries were higher than the national average values, and children were the most vulnerable groups. The heavily polluted regions were mainly located at the Yangtze River Delta, the Bohai Rim, the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Basin, and the Yellow River Basin. The Yangtze River Delta was further identified as the high priority control area based on the class distribution of Igeo and E. Regression analysis showed the soil Cr concentrations in industrial regions increased during 2002-2009 and then turned into a declining trend in 2009-2021. This paper gives detailed insights into soil Cr pollution status in industrial regions across China and the results may serve as references for formulating tailored control measures for different industries and areas.

Dissociable brainstem functional connectivity changes correlate with objective and subjective vigilance decline after total sleep deprivation in healthy male subjects.

The maintenance of vigilance relies on the activation of the cerebral cortex by the arousal system centered on the brainstem. Previous studies have suggested that both objective and subjective vigilance are susceptible to sleep deprivation. This study aims to explore the alterations in brainstem arousal system functional connectivity (FC) and its involvement in these two types of vigilance decline following total sleep deprivation (TSD). Thirty-seven healthy male subjects underwent two counterbalanced resting-state fMRI scans, once in rested wakefulness (RW) and once after 36 h of TSD. The pontine tegmental area and caudal midbrain (PTA-cMidbrain), the core regions of the brainstem arousal system, were chosen as the seeds for FC analysis. The difference in PTA-cMidbrain FC between RW and TSD conditions was then investigated, as well as its associations with objective vigilance measured by psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) and subjective vigilance measured by Stanford Sleepiness Scale. The sleep-deprived subjects showed increased PTA-cMidbrain FC with the thalamus and cerebellum and decreased PTA-cMidbrain FC with the occipital, parietal, and sensorimotor regions. TSD-induced increases in PVT reaction time were negatively correlated with altered PTA-cMidbrain FC in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, extrastriate visual cortex, and precuneus. TSD-induced increases in subjective sleepiness were positively correlated with altered PTA-cMidbrain FC in default mode regions including the medial prefrontal cortex and precuneus. Our results suggest that different brainstem FC patterns underlie the objective and subjective vigilance declines induced by TSD.

Fe-biochar for simultaneous stabilization of chromium and arsenic in soil: Rational design and long-term performance.

Excess chromium (Cr) and arsenic (As) coexist in soil such as chromated copper arsenate (CCA) contaminated sites, leading to high risks of pollution. Fe-biochar with adjustable redox activity offers the possibility of simultaneous stabilization of Cr and As. Here, a series of Fe-biochar with distinct Fe/C structure were rationally produced for the remediation of Cr and As contaminated soil (BCX-Fe, X represented the biomass/Fe ratio). Adsorption tests showed that maximal adsorption of BC5-Fe for Cr(VI) and As(III) reached 73.7 and 81.3 mg/g. A 90-day soil remediation experiment indicated that the introduction of 3% (w/w) Fe-biochar reduced the leaching state of Cr(VI) by 93.8-99.7% and As by 75.2-95.6%. Under simulated groundwater erosion for 10 years and acid rain leaching for 7.5 years, the release levels of Cr(VI) and As in the BC5-Fe remediated soil could meet the groundwater class IV standard in China (Cr(VI)<0.1 mg/L, As<0.05 mg/L). Accelerated aging tests demonstrated that BC5-Fe had long-term Cr and As stabilization ability. The quenching experiment, EPR, and XPS suggested that the corrosion products of Fe dominated the adsorption and redox reactions, while the O groups acted as electron transfer stations and constituted redox microcirculation in the synchronous uptake of Cr/As. Based on these insights, we believe that our study will provide meaningful information about the application potential of Fe-biochar for the heavy metal contaminated soil remediation.

Association of Transferrin Gene Polymorphism with Cognitive Deficits and Psychiatric Symptoms in Patients with Chronic Schizophrenia.

A large amount of recent literature has focused on impaired iron homeostasis in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Specifically, microarray analysis has illustrated associations between the transferrin locus and schizophrenia. To elaborate on the effects of transferrin on schizophrenia and its psychiatric phenotypes, our study aimed to investigate whether transferrin gene polymorphism was correlated with cognitive deficits and clinical symptoms in schizophrenia. We recruited 564 patients with chronic schizophrenia and 422 healthy controls (HCs) in a Han Chinese population, collected phenotypic data, and genotyped the rs3811655 polymorphism of the transferrin gene. Our results showed that the rs3811655 polymorphism was related to cognitive performance in both patients and HCs, as well as negative symptoms in patients (all p < 0.05), and patients carrying at least one G-allele showed worsened cognition/severe negative symptoms (all p < 0.05). Further analyses also found that the rs3811655 polymorphism in combination with cognition may exert small but significant contributions to the negative (ß = −0.10, t = −2.48, p < 0.05) or total psychiatric symptoms (ß = −0.08, t = −1.92, p < 0.05) in patients. Our findings indicated that the rs3811655 polymorphism may be implicated in the cognitive deficits of schizophrenia and HCs as well as psychiatric symptoms in patients, which suggested the possible iron regulatory mechanism in the pathology of schizophrenia.

Convergent and divergent gray matter volume abnormalities in unaffected first-degree relatives and ultra-high risk individuals of schizophrenia.

High-risk populations of schizophrenia can be mainly identified as genetic high-risk based on putative endophenotypes or ultra-high-risk (UHR) based on clinically manifested symptoms. Previous studies have consistently shown brain structural abnormalities in both genetic high-risk and UHR individuals. In this study, we aimed to disentangle the convergent and divergent pattern of gray matter alterations between UHR and unaffected first-degree relatives from genetic high-risk individuals. We used structural MRI scans and voxel-based morphometry method to examine gray matter volume (GMV) differences among 23 UHR subjects meeting the Structured Interview for Prodromal Syndromes (SIPS) criteria, 18 unaffected first-degree relatives (UFDR), 26 first-episode schizophrenia patients (FES) and 54 healthy controls (CN). We found that a number of brain regions exhibited a monotonically decreasing trend of GMV from CN to UFDR to UHR to FES. Compared with CN, the UHR subjects showed significant decreases of GMV similar to the patients in the inferior temporal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, middle occipital gyrus, insula, and limbic regions. Moreover, the UHR transformed subgroup had significantly lower GMV than UHR non-transformed subgroup in the right inferior temporal/fusiform gyrus. On the other hand, the UFDR subjects only showed significant GMV decreases in the inferior temporal gyrus and fusiform. Moreover, we found GMV in the occipital lobe was negatively correlated with the UHR subjects' composite positive symptom of SIPS, and GMV in the cerebellum was positively correlated with FES subjects' symptom severity. Our results suggest that GMV deficits and regional dysfunction are evident prior to the onset of psychosis and are more prominent in the UHR than the UFDR individuals.

Effects and Mechanisms of Copper Oxide Nanoparticles with Regard to Arsenic Availability in Soil-Rice Systems: Adsorption Behavior and Microbial Response.

Copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) are widely used as fungicides in agriculture. Arsenic (As) is a ubiquitous contaminant in paddy soil. The present study was focused on the adsorption behavior of CuO NPs with regard to As as well as the characteristics of the microbial community changes in As-contaminated soil-rice systems in response to CuO NPs. The study found that CuO NPs could be a temporary sink of As in soil; a high dose of CuO NPs promoted the release of As from crystalline iron oxide, which increased the As content in the liquid phase. The study also found that the As bioavailability changed significantly when the dose of CuO NPs was higher than 50 mg kg-1 in the soil-rice system. The addition of 100 mg kg-1 CuO NPs increased the microbial diversity and the abundance of genes involved in As cycling, decreased the abundance of Fe(III)-reducing bacteria and sulfate-reducing genes, and decreased As accumulation in grains. Treatment with 500 mg kg-1 CuO NPs increased the abundance of Fe(III)-reducing bacteria and sulfate-reducing genes, decreased Fe plaques, and increased As accumulation in rice. The adverse effects of CuO NPs on crops and associated risks need to be considered carefully.

Effects of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Cognitive Function in Patients With Stress-Related Depression: A Randomized Double-Blind fMRI and 1H-MRS Study.

Objectives: To reveal the effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on the improvement of cognitive function in patients with stress-related depression, and to enrich the neural mechanism(s) underlying rTMS so as to improve cognitive function in patients with stress-related depression. Methods: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of rTMS in patients with stress-related depression who were 18-40 years of age. Patients were randomly allocated to either a sham or experimental group in a 1:1 ratio. A 10-session rTMS protocol was used with 10-Hz stimulation over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Clinical assessments (HAMD, HAMA, DASS, MoCA), neuropsychologic (Stroop, WCST), and resting state fMRI and 1H-MRS assessments were executed at two time points-baseline and after the 10th rTMS session. Results: rTMS relieved the mental symptoms of patients in both groups. The MoCA score of patients in the experimental group increased; the number of correct answers increased significantly in Stroop testing, and the number of errors and omissions decreased significantly; the number of persistent errors decreased significantly; and the time used to complete the test decreased to an even greater extent in the WCST experimental group. The ReHo value in the lingual gyrus of the right hemisphere and the cuneus of the left and right hemispheres in the experimental group decreased after treatment. The DC value in the left and right hemispheric cuneus and postcentral gyrus of the left hemisphere in the experimental group diminished after treatment. The functional connections of these brain regions also changed as the Cho and NAA/Cr of the left DLPFC changed, with alterations related to the improvement in cognitive function. The level of choline (Cho) in the left DLPFC of the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group, and the level of N-acetylaspartate/creatine (NAA/Cr) in the left DLPFC of the control group was significantly higher than that of the experimental group. These changes were related to the overall improvement in cognitive function. Conclusions: Ten-Hz rTMS over the left DLPFC improved the cognitive function of patients with stress-related depression. The governing mechanism for this phenomenon may be via rTMS effects on multiple visual-related brain regions and their functional connections, and on the somatosensory cortex and its functional connection with visual and auditory cortex, reducing the level of Cho and stabilizing the level of NAA/Cr in the left DLPFC.

Brain structural plasticity in visual and sensorimotor areas of airline pilots: A voxel-based morphometric study.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Airline pilot is a highly specialized profession that requires to response quickly and accurately in the presence of a wide variety of visual information. Although functional imaging studies have employed virtual simulation to identify brain areas that underlie various flying-related tasks, little is known about the specific patterns of structural plasticity in the airline pilot's brain. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, we examined differences of gray matter and white matter volumes between 42 airline pilots and 39 non-pilots by using voxel-based morphometry, and further assessed the association between magnitude of structural alterations and flight time in the pilots. RESULTS: We found significantly increased white matter volume in the cuneus area in the pilot group compared to the non-pilot group (p < 0.05, FWE corrected). Using a relaxed threshold, it was also observed that the pilots had increased gray matter volume in the lingual gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, cuneus, and postcentral gyrus, and increased white matter volume in the postcentral area (p < 0.001, uncorrected). Moreover, the pilots' flight time was positively correlated with gray matter volume in the postcentral gyrus and white matter volume in the cuneus area (p < 0.001, uncorrected). CONCLUSIONS: The morphological changes in specific visual and sensorimotor areas may provide airline pilots with neural efficiency in the visuo-motor processing related to flight.

Alteration in Resting-State EEG Microstates Following 24 Hours of Total Sleep Deprivation in Healthy Young Male Subjects.

Purpose: The cognitive effects of total sleep deprivation (TSD) on the brain remain poorly understood. Electroencephalography (EEG) is a very useful tool for detecting spontaneous brain activity in the resting state. Quasi-stable electrical distributions, known as microstates, carry useful information about the dynamics of large-scale brain networks. In this study, microstate analysis was used to study changes in brain activity after 24 h of total sleep deprivation. Participants and Methods: Twenty-seven healthy volunteers were recruited and underwent EEG scans before and after 24 h of TSD. Microstate analysis was applied, and six microstate classes (A-F) were identified. Topographies and temporal parameters of the microstates were compared between the rested wakefulness (RW) and TSD conditions. Results: Microstate class A (a right-anterior to left-posterior orientation of the mapped field) showed lower global explained variance (GEV), frequency of occurrence, and time coverage in TSD than RW, whereas microstate class D (a fronto-central extreme location of the mapped field) displayed higher GEV, frequency of occurrence, and time coverage in TSD compared to RW. Moreover, subjective sleepiness was significantly negatively correlated with the microstate parameters of class A and positively correlated with the microstate parameters of class D. Transition analysis revealed that class B exhibited a higher probability of transition than did classes D and F in TSD compared to RW. Conclusion: The observation suggests alterations of the dynamic brain-state properties of TSD in healthy young male subjects, which may serve as system-level neural underpinnings for cognitive declines in sleep-deprived subjects.

Discriminative Analysis of Symptom Severity and Ultra-High Risk of Schizophrenia Using Intrinsic Functional Connectivity.

Past studies have consistently shown functional dysconnectivity of large-scale brain networks in schizophrenia. In this study, we aimed to further assess whether multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) could yield a sensitive predictor of patient symptoms, as well as identify ultra-high risk (UHR) stage of schizophrenia from intrinsic functional connectivity of whole-brain networks. We first combined rank-based feature selection and support vector machine methods to distinguish between 43 schizophrenia patients and 52 healthy controls. The constructed classifier was then applied to examine functional connectivity profiles of 18 UHR individuals. The classifier indicated reliable relationship between MVPA measures and symptom severity, with higher classification accuracy in more severely affected schizophrenia patients. The UHR subjects had classification scores falling between those of healthy controls and patients, suggesting an intermediate level of functional brain abnormalities. Moreover, UHR individuals with schizophrenia-like connectivity profiles at baseline presented higher rate of conversion to full-blown illness in the follow-up visits. Spatial maps of discriminative brain regions implicated increases of functional connectivity in the default mode network, whereas decreases of functional connectivity in the cerebellum, thalamus and visual areas in schizophrenia. The findings may have potential utility in the early diagnosis and intervention of schizophrenia.

Endogenous cortisol-related alterations of right anterior insula functional connectivity under acute stress.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have suggested that the right anterior insula (rAI) plays a vital role in salience processing and stress-related disorders. In this study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between rAI functional connectivity changes and individual differences in cortisol responses after acute stress, in order to provide insights into psychiatric illness vulnerabilities. METHODS: Thirty-five young men were enrolled in a randomized, counterbalanced two-session study, with aversive movie clip combined with electrical shocks as stress stimulation and the neutral movie clip as control stimulation. Resting-state fMRI data was acquired after movie exposure. The rAI was chosen as seed for functional connectivity analysis. We then examined the effect of acute stress on rAI functional connectivity and its association with individuals' cortisol response. RESULTS: We found decreased rAI functional connectivity in the fronto-parietal regions, but increased functional connectivity in the visual and somatosensory areas following acute stress. Moreover, stress-induced cortisol response was significantly positively correlated with the rAI functional connectivity in the medial prefrontal cortex, and negatively correlated with the orbital-frontal cortex, lingual gyrus, and middle temporal gyrus. LIMITATIONS: Only young Chinese males without any trauma experience were recruited in this study. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggested tight link between specific rAI functional connectivity alterations and individual stress reactivity, which may help elucidate the potential neurobiological mechanism underlying vulnerability to stress-related disorders.

Manifold Learning of Dynamic Functional Connectivity Reliably Identifies Functionally Consistent Coupling Patterns in Human Brains.

Most previous work on dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) has focused on analyzing temporal traits of functional connectivity (similar coupling patterns at different timepoints), dividing them into functional connectivity states and detecting their between-group differences. However, the coherent functional connectivity of brain activity among the temporal dynamics of functional connectivity remains unknown. In the study, we applied manifold learning of local linear embedding to explore the consistent coupling patterns (CCPs) that reflect functionally homogeneous regions underlying dFC throughout the entire scanning period. By embedding the whole-brain functional connectivity in a low-dimensional manifold space based on the Human Connectome Project (HCP) resting-state data, we identified ten stable patterns of functional coupling across regions that underpin the temporal evolution of dFC. Moreover, some of these CCPs exhibited significant neurophysiological meaning. Furthermore, we apply this method to HCP rsfMR and tfMRI data as well as sleep-deprivation data and found that the topological organization of these low-dimensional structures has high potential for predicting sleep-deprivation states (classification accuracy of 92.3%) and task types (100% identification for all seven tasks).In summary, this work provides a methodology for distilling coherent low-dimensional functional connectivity structures in complex brain dynamics that play an important role in performing tasks or characterizing specific states of the brain.

Altered resting-state functional connectivity of the insula in individuals with clinical high-risk and patients with first-episode schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVES: Abnormalities in insular functional connectivity have been implicated in many clinical features of schizophrenia. The aim of this study was to determine to what degree such abnormalities occur in individuals with clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR), and whether which is associated with symptom severity. METHODS: Resting-state fMRI data were collected from 47 healthy controls, 24 CHR individuals and 19 patients with first-episode schizophrenia. Using the posterior, dorsal and ventral insular subregions as separate seeds, we examined resting-state functional connectivity differences between different groups and the association between concurrent symptom severity and dysconnectivity. RESULTS: Compared with healthy controls, both CHR individuals and schizophrenia patients showed hypoconnectivity between posterior insula (PI) and somatosensory areas, and between dorsal anterior insula (dAI) and putamen. Schizophrenia patients also showed dAI and ventral anterior insula(vAI) hyperconnectivity with visual areas relative to controls and CHR individuals. Correlation analysis revealed that dAI functional connectivity with superior temporal gyrus was positively correlated with positive symptoms of CHR, and vAI connectivity with dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was negatively correlated with the severity of the symptoms of first-episode schizophrenia. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that insular functional dysconnectivity with the sensory cortex may be a system-level neural substrate preceding the onset of psychosis.

Corrigendum: Gender Identification of Human Cortical 3-D Morphology Using Hierarchical Sparsity.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2019.00029.].