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 aging map 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脑年龄差距：与经验性阴性症状和转变为精神病的关联


背景和假设 大脑发育/衰老在个体之间并不统一，这促使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。脑年龄差距表示估计的脑生物年龄与实际年龄之间的差异（在这种情况下，基于结构磁共振成像，MRI）。结构 MRI 研究报告称，精神分裂症患者的脑年龄差距增加（生物年龄 > 实际年龄），脑年龄差距越大，负面症状越严重。关于精神分裂症 （ESZ） 早期这种差距的性质，如果这种差距代表临床高危 （CHR-P） 个体的精神病转换生物标志物，以及大脑发育和/或衰老的改变如何映射到特定症状方面，我们知之甚少。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 精神病转换的关联 （CHR-P 转换器 n = 10;CHR-P 非转换器;n = 23）以及阳性和阴性症状。研究结果 ESZ 显示相对于 UCP 和 CHR-P 的大脑年龄差距更大 （Ps < .010）。相对于 CHR-P 非转化者，转化为精神病的 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有关 （P = .008），但与表达阴性症状严重程度无关。结论 与假设大脑成熟异常的精神分裂症病理生理模型一致，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。