Common and Distinct Alterations of Cognitive Function and Brain Structure in Schizophrenia and Major Depressive Disorder: A Pilot Study

Mengying Ma; Yuyanan Zhang; Xiao Zhang; Hao Yan; Dai Zhang; Weihua Yue

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2021.705998

Common and Distinct Alterations of Cognitive Function and Brain Structure in Schizophrenia and Major Depressive Disorder: A Pilot Study

Front Psychiatry. 2021 Jul 20:12:705998. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.705998. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Mengying Ma^{1

2}, Yuyanan Zhang^{1

2}, Xiao Zhang^{1

2}, Hao Yan^{1

2}, Dai Zhang^{1

2

3}, Weihua Yue^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Mental Health, The Sixth Hospital, Peking University, Beijing, China.
² Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Ministry of Health & National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, Peking University, Beijing, China.
³ PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Peking University, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Objective: Numerous studies indicate that schizophrenia (SCZ) and major depressive disorder (MDD) share pathophysiological characteristics. Investigating the neurobiological features of psychiatric-affective disorders may facilitate the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders. Hence, we aimed to explore whether patients with SCZ and patients with MDD had the similar or distinct cognitive impairments and GMV alterations to further understand their underlying pathophysiological mechanisms. Methods: We recruited a total of 52 MDD patients, 64 SCZ patients, and 65 healthy controls (HCs). The Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia (MATRICS) Consensus Cognitive Battery was used to assess cognitive functions. In addition, voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis was used to evaluate the gray matter volume (GMV) by using MRI scanning. One-way ANOVA and post-hoc tests were used to find the differences among the MDD, SCZ, and HCs. Finally, we explored the correlation between structural alterations and cognitive functions. Results: Compared with that of HCs, processing speed was impaired in both patients with SCZ and patients with MDD (F = 49.505, p < 0.001). SCZ patients displayed impaired cognitive performance in all dimensions of cognitive functions compared with HCs (p < 0.001, except social cognition, p = 0.043, Bonferroni corrected). Whole-brain VBM analysis showed that both SCZ and MDD groups had reductions of GMV in the medial superior frontal cortex (cluster-level FWE p < 0.05). Patients with SCZ exhibited declining GMV in the anterior cingulate cortex and right middle frontal cortex (MFC) compared with HCs and MDD patients (cluster-level FWE p < 0.05). The mean values of GMV in the right MFC had a positive correlation with the attention/vigilance function in patients with MDD (p = 0.014, partial. r = 0.349, without Bonferroni correction). Conclusions: In total, our study found that MDD and SCZ groups had common cognitive impairments and brain structural alterations, but the SCZ group exhibited more severe impairment than the MDD group in both fields. The above findings may provide a potential support for recognizing the convergent and divergent brain neural pathophysiological mechanisms between MDD and SCZ.

Keywords: cognitive function; gray matter volume; major depressive disorder; schizophrenia; superior frontal cortex.