Abnormal Dynamic Reconstruction of Overlapping Communities in Schizophrenia Patients

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to explore the changes in dynamic overlapping communities in the brains of schizophrenia (SZ) patients and further investigate the dynamic restructuring patterns of overlapping communities in SZ patients. Materials and Methods: A total of 43 SZ patients and 49 normal controls (NC) were selected for resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) scans. Dynamic functional connectivity analysis was conducted separately on SZ patients and NC using rs-fMRI and Jackknife Correlation techniques to construct dynamic brain network models. Based on these models, a dynamic overlapping community detection method was utilized to explore the abnormal overlapping community structure in SZ patients using evaluation metrics such as the structural stability of overlapping communities, nodes’ functional diversity, and activity level of overlapping communities. Results: The stability of communities in SZ patients showed a decreasing trend. The changes in the overlapping community structure of SZ patients may be related to a decrease in the diversity of overlapping node functions. Additionally, compared to the NC group, the activity level of overlapping communities of SZ patients was significantly reduced. Conclusion: The structure or organization of the brain functional network in SZ patients is abnormal or disrupted, and the activity of the brain network in information processing and transmission is weakened in SZ patients.

Keywords

• dynamic overlapping community algorithm
• fMRI
• dynamic brain network
• schizophrenia
• community restructuring