Schizotypy is a set of enduring traits and phenotypic expression of the familial-genetic liability to schizophrenia. The importance of schizotypy in understanding the psychopathology of schizophrenia has recently been emphasized because empirical evidence suggests that individuals with high schizotypy and patients with established schizophrenia show similar but attenuated dysfunctions in cognition and perception, emotional processing, as well as brain structural and functional abnormalities.

However, very few study has been conducted to examine the potential changes in structural and functional connectivity in individuals with schizotypy. Drs. Raymond Chan, Yi Wang, and Chao Yan from the Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience (NACN) Laboratory, Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology have examined the underlying brain changes in individuals with high schizotypy by integrating networks derived from brain structural and functional imaging. The findings showed that individuals with high schizotypy demonstrated reduced grey matter (GM) density in the insula and the dorsolateral prefrontal gyrus. Further analysis indicated that individuals with high schizotypy showed similar global properties in their functional networks as low schizotypy individuals. Several hubs of the functional network were identified in both groups, including the insula, the lingual gyrus, the postcentral gyrus and the rolandic operculum. More hubs in the frontal lobe and fewer hubs in the occipital lobe were identified in individuals with high schizotypy. By comparing the functional connectivity between clusters with abnormal GM density and the whole brain, individuals with high schizotypy showed weaker functional connectivity between the left insula and the putamen, but stronger connectivity between the cerebellum and the medial frontal gyrus. Taken together, these findings suggest that individuals with high schizotypy present changes in terms of grey matter and resting state functional connectivity, especially in the frontal lobe.

This study was supported by a grant from the “Strategic Priority Research Program (B)” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Science Fund China , and a grant from the Knowledge Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

This paper is now available online in Schizophrenia Bulletin.