Generalizability and Out-of-Sample Predictive Ability of Associations Between Neuromelanin-Sensitive Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Psychosis in Antipsychotic-Free Individuals
Authors: Wengler Kenneth , Baker Seth C. , Velikovskaya Anastasia , Fogelson Alissa , Girgis Ragy R. , Reyes-Madrigal Francisco , Lee Seonjoo , de la Fuente-Sandoval Camilo , Ojeil Najate , Horga Guillermo 
Published: November 2023

Importance

The link between psychosis and dopaminergic dysfunction is established, but no generalizable biomarkers with clear potential for clinical adoption exist.

Objective

To replicate previous findings relating neuromelanin-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging (NM-MRI), a proxy measure of dopamine function, to psychosis severity in antipsychotic-free individuals in the psychosis spectrum and to evaluate the out-of-sample predictive ability of NM-MRI for psychosis severity.

Design, Setting, and Participants

This cross-sectional study recruited participants from 2019 to 2023 in the New York City area (main samples) and Mexico City area (external validation sample). The main samples consisted of 42 antipsychotic-free patients with schizophrenia, 53 antipsychotic-free individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR), and 52 matched healthy controls. An external validation sample consisted of 16 antipsychotic-naive patients with schizophrenia.

Main Outcomes and Measures

NM-MRI contrast within a subregion of the substantia nigra previously linked to psychosis severity (a priori psychosis region of interest [ROI]) and psychosis severity measured using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) in schizophrenia and the Structured Interview for Psychosis-Risk Syndromes (SIPS) in CHR. The cross-validated performance of linear support vector regression to predict psychosis severity across schizophrenia and CHR was assessed, and a final trained model was tested on the external validation sample.

Results

Of the 163 included participants, 76 (46.6%) were female, and the mean (SD) age was 29.2 (10.4) years. In the schizophrenia sample, higher PANSS positive total scores correlated with higher mean NM-MRI contrast in the psychosis ROI (t37 = 2.24,P = .03; partialr = 0.35; 95% CI, 0.05 to 0.55). In the CHR sample, no significant association was found between higher SIPS positive total score and NM-MRI contrast in the psychosis ROI (t48 = −0.55,P = .68; partialr = −0.08; 95% CI, −0.36 to 0.23). The 10-fold cross-validated prediction accuracy of psychosis severity was above chance in held-out test data (meanr = 0.305,P = .01; mean root-mean-square error [RMSE] = 1.001,P = .005). External validation prediction accuracy was also above chance (r = 0.422,P = .046; RMSE = 0.882,P = .047).

Conclusions and Relevance

This study provided a direct ROI-based replication of the in-sample association between NM-MRI contrast and psychosis severity in antipsychotic-free patients with schizophrenia. In turn, it failed to replicate such association in CHR individuals. Most critically, cross-validated machine-learning analyses provided a proof-of-concept demonstration that NM-MRI patterns can be used to predict psychosis severity in new data, suggesting potential for developing clinically useful tools.