Disturbed functional connectivity within the left prefrontal cortex and sensorimotor areas predicts impaired cognitive speed in patients with first-episode schizophrenia

This study aimed at identifying abnormal cortico-cortical functional connectivity patterns that could predict cognitive slowing in patients with schizophrenia. A group of thirty-two patients with the first-episode schizophrenia and comparable healthy controls underwent resting-state qEEG and cognitive assessment. Phase Lag Index (PLI) was applied as a connectivity index and the synchronizations were analyzed in six frequencies. Pairs of electrodes were grouped to separately cover frontal, temporal, central, parietal and occipital regions. PLI was calculated for intra-regional connectivity and between-regions connectivity. Computer version processing speed tests were applied to control for possible fluctuations in cognitive efficiency during the performance of the tasks. In the group of patients, in comparison to healthy controls, significantly higher PLI values were recorded in theta frequency, especially in the posterior areas and decreased PLI in low-alpha frequency within the frontal regions. Mean PLI in gamma frequency was also lower in the patients group. Regression analysis showed that lower intra-regional PLI for left frontal cortex and higher PLI within somatosensory cortex in theta band, together with the duration of untreated psychosis, proved to be significant predictors of impaired processing speed in first-episode patients. Our investigation confirmed that disrupted cortico-cortical synchronization contributes to cognitive slowing in schizophrenia.