Cognitive correlates of frontoparietal network connectivity 'at rest' in individuals with differential risk for psychotic disorder

Altered frontoparietal network functional connectivity (FPN-fc) has been associated with neurocognitive dysfunction in individuals with (risk for) psychotic disorder. Cannabis use is associated with cognitive and FPN-fc alterations in healthy individuals, but it is not known whether cannabis exposure moderates the FPN-fc-cognition association. We studied FPN-fc in relation to psychosis risk, as well as the moderating effects of psychosis risk and cannabis use on the association between FPN-fc and (social) cognition. This was done by collecting resting-state fMRI scans and (social) cognitive test results from 63 patients with psychotic disorder, 73 unaffected siblings and 59 controls. Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) seed-based correlation analyses were used to estimate FPN-fc group differences. Additionally, groupxFPN-fc and cannabisxFPN-fc interactions in models of cognition were assessed with regression models. Results showed that DLPFC-fc with the left precuneus, right inferior parietal lobule, right middle temporal gyrus (MTG), inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) regions and right insula was decreased in patients compared to controls. Siblings had reduced DLPFC-fc with the right MTG, left middle frontal gyrus, right superior frontal gyrus, IFG regions, and right insula compared to controls, with an intermediate position between patients and controls for DLPFC-IFG/MTG and insula-fc. There were no significant FPN-fcxgroup or FPN-fcxcannabis interactions in models of cognition. Reduced DLPFC-insula-fc was associated with worse social cognition in the total sample. In conclusion, besides patient- and sibling-specific FPN-fc alterations, there was evidence for trait-related alterations. FPN-fc-cognition associations were not conditional on familial liability or cannabis use. Lower FPN-fc was associated with lower emotion processing in the total group.