Autonomic arousal moderates network switching-cognition link in healthy controls but not schizophrenia

This observational study examined 105 participants: 39 healthy controls, 27 psychiatric controls, and 39 individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Researchers collected concurrent resting-state fMRI and pulse oximetry data during an attention task to investigate the relationship between network switching, cognitive performance, and autonomic arousal. The study compared these three groups on autonomic arousal, network switching rates in dorsal default mode and anterior salience networks, and the association between network switching and cognitive performance.

No group differences in autonomic arousal were observed. However, psychiatric controls exhibited higher network switching rates compared to individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The key finding was that autonomic arousal significantly moderated the relationship between network switching and cognitive performance in healthy controls, but this moderating effect was absent in the schizophrenia spectrum disorders group.

Safety and tolerability data were not reported. A key limitation is that whether arousal-related alterations in network switching contribute to cognitive impairment in schizophrenia remains unclear. The neural mechanisms of cognitive deficits in schizophrenia remain poorly understood.

For practice, the findings implicate network switching as a potential neural biomarker that differentiates psychiatric controls from schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The results suggest disrupted coupling between arousal state and network switching, rather than switching alone, may underlie cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. However, this is an observational finding requiring further investigation.