Structural and functional alterations in the brain during working memory in medication-naïve patients at clinical high-risk for psychosis

Several previous studies suggest that clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR) is associated with prefrontal functional abnormalities and more widespread reduced grey matter in prefrontal, temporal and parietal areas. We investigated neural correlates to CHR in medication-naïve patients. 41 CHR patients and 37 healthy controls were examined with 1.5 Tesla MRI, yielding functional scans while performing an N-back task and structural T1-weighted brain images. Functional and structural data underwent automated preprocessing steps in SPM and Freesurfer, correspondingly. The groups were compared employing mass-univariate strategy within the generalized linear modelling framework. CHR demonstrated reduced suppression of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) regions during n-back task. We also found that, consistent with previous findings, CHR subjects demonstrated thinning in prefrontal, cingulate, insular and inferior temporal areas, as well as reduced hippocampal volumes. The present findings add to the growing evidence of specific structural and functional abnormalities in the brain as potential neuroimaging markers of psychosis vulnerability.