Multiplexity and Graph Signal Processing of EEG Dynamic Functional Connectivity Networks As Connectomic Biomarkers for Schizophrenia Patients: A Whole Brain Breakdown

Introduction Last years, many studies explored the disruption of functional interactions in schizophrenic patients compared to healthy controls supporting the consideration of schizophrenia as a disconnection syndrome. However, the majority of studies followed a static connectivity analysis ignoring the rich information encapsulated under the framework of dynamic functional connectivity graph (dFCG) analysis. Methods A dFCG has been estimated using a multivariate phase coupling estimator (PCE) by integrating both intra and cross-frequency coupling modes into an integrated DFCG (iDFCG) that encapsulates the functional strength and the type of coupling between pairs of brain areas. We analysed dFCG (Low-Order iDFCG) profiles of electroencephalographic resting state (eyes closed) recordings of healthy controls (n=39) and subjects with symptoms of schizophrenia (n=45) in basic frequency bands {δ,θ,α1,α2,β1,β2,γ}. We constructed the High-Order - iDFCG by adopting the cosine similarity between the time-series derived from the Low-Order-iDFCG. Estimating Graph Laplacians transformations of Low-Order and High-Order-iDFCG and by calculating the temporal evolution of Synchronizability (Syn), network metric time series (NMTSSyn) were produced. Results Following, a machine learning approach based on multi-kernel SVM with the four NMTSSyn used as potential features and appropriate kernels, we succeeded a superior classification accuracy (∼98%). DICM and flexibility index (FI) achieved a classification with absolute performance (100 %). Conclusions Schizophrenic subjects demonstrated a hypo-synchronization compared to healthy control group which can be interpreted as a low global synchronization of co-fluctuate functional patterns. Our analysis could be helpful for clinical prediction of ScZ and also for evaluating non-intervention treatments tailored to schizophrenia.

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