Background and Hypothesis Brain development/aging is not uniform across individuals,spawning efforts to characterize brain age from a biological perspective to model the effects of disease and maladaptive life processes on the brain. The brain age gap represents the discrepancy between estimated brain biological age and chronological age (in this case, based on structural magnetic resonance imaging, MRI). Structural MRI studies report an increased brain age gap (biological age > chronological age) in schizophrenia, with a greater brain age gap related to greater negative symptom severity. Less is known regarding the nature of this gap early in schizophrenia (ESZ), if this gap represents a psychosis conversion biomarker in clinical high-risk (CHR-P) individuals, and how altered brain development and/or agingmap onto specific symptom facets. Study Design Using structural MRI, we compared the brain age gap among CHR-P (n = 51), ESZ (n = 78), and unaffected comparison participants (UCP; n = 90), and examined associations with CHR-P psychosis conversion (CHR-P converters n = 10; CHR-P non-converters; n = 23) and positive and negative symptoms. Study Results ESZ showed a greater brain age gap relative to UCP and CHR-P (Ps < .010). CHR-P individuals who converted to psychosis showed a greater brain age gap (P = .043) relative to CHR-P non-converters. A larger brain age gap in ESZ was associated with increased experiential (P = .008), but not expressive negative symptom severity. Conclusions Consistent with schizophrenia pathophysiological models positing abnormal brain maturation, results suggest abnormal brain development is present early in psychosis. An increased brain age gap may be especially relevant to motivational and functional deficits in schizophrenia.

中文翻译：

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早期疾病精神分裂症和临床高危综合征的大脑年龄差距：与体验性阴性症状和转化为精神病的关联


背景和假设 个体之间的大脑发育/衰老并不相同，因此人们努力从生物学角度描述大脑年龄，以模拟疾病和适应不良的生命过程对大脑的影响。大脑年龄差距代表估计的大脑生物学年龄和实际年龄（在本例中，基于结构磁共振成像，MRI）之间的差异。结构性 MRI 研究报告显示，精神分裂症患者的大脑年龄差距（生物学年龄 > 实足年龄）增加，大脑年龄差距越大，阴性症状越严重。关于精神分裂症 (ESZ) 早期这一差距的性质、是否代表临床高危 (CHR-P) 个体中的精神病转化生物标志物，以及如何改变大脑发育和/或衰老映射到特定症状方面，人们知之甚少。研究设计使用结构 MRI，我们比较了 CHR-P (n = 51)、ESZ (n = 78) 和未受影响的对照参与者 (UCP；n = 90) 之间的大脑年龄差距，并检查了与 CHR-P 精神病转化的关联（CHR-P 转化者 n = 10；CHR-P 非转化者；n = 23）以及阳性和阴性症状。研究结果 ESZ 显示出与 UCP 和 CHR-P 相比更大的大脑年龄差距 (Ps < .010)。相对于未转变为 CHR-P 的人，转变为精神病的 CHR-P 个体表现出更大的大脑年龄差距 (P = .043)。 ESZ 中较大的大脑年龄差距与体验增加相关 (P = .008)，但与表达性阴性症状严重程度无关。结论 与精神分裂症病理生理学模型提出的大脑成熟异常一致，结果表明大脑发育异常存在于精神病早期。大脑年龄差距的增加可能与精神分裂症的动机和功能缺陷特别相关。