Psychosis, at present, is diagnosed through a clinical interview. However, imagine being able to detect it even before the first symptom surfaces. This is what researchers from the University of Rochester’s Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience are working towards. They’re exploring a potential brain biomarker that could pave the way for early and personalized treatment.
As per Brian Keane, PhD, assistant professor of Psychiatry, Center for Visual Science, and Neuroscience at the University of Rochester Medical Center, this discovery could revolutionize the way we manage and treat psychosis. It could help predict the onset of the condition, categorize patients into clinically relevant groups, and suggest new treatment options. Dr. Keane recently co-authored a study in Molecular Psychiatry that unveils how MRI scans may show brain differences in individuals with psychosis.
Utilizing data from the Human Connectome Early Psychosis Project, the team analyzed MRI scans of 159 participants, including 105 who developed a psychotic disorder within five years before the study. The results showed that in the brains of those with psychosis, sensory regions in the cortex were less interconnected, but had stronger connections to the thalamus, the brain’s information hub. These anomalies were confined to the somatomotor network, responsible for bodily movement and sensations, and a visual network that forms representations of objects and faces. These deviant connectivity patterns across both networks led to the creation of a “somato-visual” biomarker.
Earlier research indicated that abnormal brain connectivity is common in the sensory networks of schizophrenia patients. However, it was ambiguous which networks were chiefly involved or if the dysconnectivity was influenced by other factors like antipsychotic usage, anxiety, or stress.
The uniqueness of this biomarker, according to Dr. Keane, lies in its large impact, ability to resist over a dozen common confounders, and its reliable consistency across multiple scans. He added that a mere five-minute scan could possibly enhance our predictive abilities for determining who among the at-risk individuals could develop a psychotic disorder. This will help in initiating timely treatments. The next step, he mentioned, is to determine whether the biomarker appears before or at the onset of psychosis.
The study also includes contributions from Yonatan Abrham, Boyang Hu, and Brent Johnson from the University of Rochester, Carrisa Cocuzza from Yale University, and Michael Cole from Rutgers University. The research was funded by a K01 grant and a Psychiatry Department pilot grant at the University of Rochester.
