Long range temporal correlations (LRTCs) in MEG-data during emerging psychosis: Relationship to symptoms, medication-status and clinical trajectory

Long-Range Temporal Correlations (LRTCs) index the capacity of the brain to optimally process information. Previous research has shown that patients with chronic schizophrenia present altered LRTCs at alpha and beta oscillations. However, it is currently unclear at which stage of schizophrenia aberrant LRTCs emerge. To address this question, we investigated LRTCs in resting-state magnetoencephalographic (MEG) recordings obtained from patients with affective disorders and substance abuse (clinically at low-risk of psychosis, CHR-N), patients at clinical high-risk of psychosis (CHR-P) (n = 115), as well as patients with a first episode (FEP) (n = 25). Matched healthy controls (n = 47) served as comparison group. LRTCs were obtained for frequencies from 4 to 40 Hz and correlated with clinical and neuropsychological data. In addition, we examined the relationship between LRTCs and transition to psychosis in CHR-P participants, and the relationship between LRTC and antipsychotic medication in FEP participants. Our results show that participants from the clinical groups have similar LRTCs to controls. In addition, LRTCs did not correlate with clinical and neurocognitive variables across participants nor did LRTCs predict transition to psychosis. Therefore, impaired LRTCs do not reflect a feature in the clinical trajectory of psychosis. Nevertheless, reduced LRTCs in the beta-band over posterior sensors of medicated FEP participants indicate that altered LRTCs may appear at the onset of the illness. Future studies are needed to elucidate the role of anti-psychotic medication in altered LRTCs.

Automated summary

The study found that participants from the clinical groups had similar LRTCs to controls, with no correlation between LRTCs and clinical or neurocognitive variables or prediction of transition to psychosis. However, medicated FEP participants showed reduced LRTCs at the onset of the illness, indicating altered LRTCs may appear early in the disease. Further research is needed to understand the role of antipsychotic medication in altered LRTCs.