Disturbed brain networks in the psychosis high-risk state?

Abstract

An early detection of emerging psychosis is decisive for the application of preventive interventions. Given that the predictive ability of clinical baseline assessment to prognosticate the onset of psychosis in high-risk individuals is limited, great expectations were raised after implementing neuroimaging techniques as state-of-the-art research methodologies to find brain markers for clinical utility in emerging psychosis. However, although a tremendous amount of effort has been invested, no reliable brain marker has yet been confirmed to predict the transition from the psychosis high-risk state to full-blown psychosis. This may be explained by the fact that previous investigations mainly focussed on changes in local regions rather than brain network dysfunctions. In line with most recent evidence indicating that psychosis may be best understood in terms of brain network dysfunctions, this chapter provides a brief overview of suitable analysis approaches and a selective overview of brain network findings in high-risk subjects for psychosis. Finally, we suggest necessary developments for future research to approach a brain network-driven stratification of individual risk propensity in people with an increased risk for psychosis.