Comparison of prefrontal hemodynamic responses and cognitive deficits between adult patients with autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia share many phenotypic characteristics, but their association with prefrontal function have not been directly compared. The aim of this study is to compare cognitive profiles and their association with the prefrontal function between the two groups. We explored prefrontal dysfunction among adult individuals with ASD (n = 32), schizophrenia (n = 87), and healthy controls (HCs; n = 50). We assessed cognitive function in all participants using the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS). The BACS data of patients with schizophrenia were entered into hierarchical cluster analyses to assign subjects to a specific subgroup based on individual profiles. Using near-infrared spectroscopy, we measured hemodynamic responses in the fronto-temporal regions during a working memory task. Among the patients with schizophrenia, we defined 4 neurocognitive subgroups, including a global impairment, a mild impairment, and 2 selective impairment groups. Compared to the HCs, the ASD and schizophrenia groups had much weaker hemodynamic responses in the left DLPFC, left frontopolar cortex (FPC), and left inferior frontal gyrus. The ASD group showed a similar level of cognitive impairment with the mild level subgroup of schizophrenia. Additionally, the two groups shared reduced activity in the left DLPFC and left FPC during the task compared to HCs. Moreover, the BACS composite scores correlated positively with hemodynamic responses in a broad area involving fronto-temporal regions in the total patient sample. This research indicates considerable similarity in the left PFC dysfunction and its association with cognitive deficits between the disorders. These findings may guide future studies that investigate pathophysiological similarities between ASD and schizophrenia.
['Pu|Shenghong|S|', 'Nakagome|Kazuyuki|K|', 'Satake|Takahiro|T|', 'Ohtachi|Hiroaki|H|', 'Itakura|Masashi|M|', 'Yamanashi|Takehiko|T|', 'Miura|Akihiko|A|', 'Yokoyama|Katsutoshi|K|', 'Matsumura|Hiroshi|H|', 'Iwata|Masaaki|M|', 'Nagata|Izumi|I|', 'Kaneko|Koichi|K|']
D000328:Adult D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder D003071:Cognition D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction D005260:Female D006439:Hemodynamics D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008570:Memory, Short-Term D008875:Middle Aged D009483:Neuropsychological Tests D017397:Prefrontal Cortex D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales D012559:Schizophrenia D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared D055815:Young Adult
Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia Near-infrared spectroscopy Working memory task Cluster analysis Prefrontal cortex