Effects of genetic liability to psychosis proneness and psychosis proneness on functional connectivity of the salience network
Author(s)
Advisor
Toulopoulou, TimotheaDate
2022-12Publisher
Bilkent University
Language
English
Type
ThesisItem Usage Stats
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Abstract
The effect of psychosis proneness, a psychometrically defined index of subclinical psychosis, has
limited research on its effect on brain connectivity in healthy populations. In addition,
functional connectivity research in psychosis proneness mainly focuses on brain networks such as
the default-mode network (DMN) and the central executive network (CEN) but not on the salience
network (SN). On a similar note, research on genetic susceptibility to psychosis in healthy
populations and the combinatory analysis between brain connectivity and genetic liability have not
been explored thoroughly. This thesis assessed the relationship between psychosis proneness and
genetic liability to psychosis to functional connectivity of the salience network. Seventy-two
pairs of twins, siblings, and triplets were included in the analysis for genetic liability and
functional connectivity. Participants’ psychosis proneness was assessed via the Community
Assessment of Psychic Experience (CAPE-42) questionnaire, and genetic liability scores (PRS-SCZ)
were calculated through PLINK and PRSIce-2 software. Global patterns of connectivity, seed-based
connectivity, and network topology of the salience network were examined. The findings have
revealed that the connectivity levels within the salience network differed in individuals with high
psychosis proneness com- pared to individuals with low psychosis proneness. Further analysis has
shown that PRS-SCZ did not show a significant difference between high and low psy- chosis proneness
groups. The results show that connectivity levels in the salience network differ in individuals
with psychometrically defined psychosis proneness. These results were not explained by differences
in genetic loading among the participants.
Keywords
Psychosis pronenessGenetic liability to psychosis
Resting state functional connectivity
Network connectivity