Normative Modelling of White Matter Microstructure in Early Psychosis and Schizophrenia

The great majority of studies in schizophrenia (SCHZ) failed to achieve recognizable spatial patterns of the disease due to its heterogeneity. With this abstract, the authors aim to understand WM microstructure patterns from an individual perspective in early psychosis and SCHZ using advanced diffusion MRI metrics, namely diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI), the WM microstructure model White Matter Tract Integrity – Watson (WMTI-W) and normative modelling, a statistical method for studying individual differences as extreme deviations from the normality. Overall, deviations in SCHZ subjects were twice as frequent when compared to EP or CTRL while EP displayed more spatial heterogeneity.