Journal of International Psychiatry

Objective To explore the effects of aerobic exercise on cognitive function and regional homogeneity (ReHo) of resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging in patients with chronic schizophrenia. Methods 40 patients with stable chronic schizophrenia were randomly divided into experimental group and control group randomly (n=20). Patients in the control group received routine antipsychotic drugs and health education during hospitalization, and the experimental group was given aerobic exercise intervention for five months on this basis. Before and after the intervention, the patients were evaluated with Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS) and the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), and were scanned with resting functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). The imaging data were analyzed by the method based on ReHo. Paired t-test was used for comparison before and after intervention, and independent t-test was used for comparison between groups, and the correlation between the difference of ReHo value and the change of PANSS as well as RBANS was analyzed. Results Compared with the result before intervention, the scores of negative symptoms, general psychopathological symptoms and total scores of PANSS in the experimental group and the general psychopathological symptoms and total scores of PANSS in the control group decreased significantly (P < 0.05). Compared with the control group, the scores of negative symptoms, general psychopathological symptoms and total scores of PANSS in the experimental group decreased more obviously after intervention (P < 0.05).The scores of immediate memory, delayed memory and total scores of RBANS in the experimental group and the scores of immediate memory in the control group were significantly improved (P < 0.05) comparing with the scores before intervention. Compared with the control group, the scores of immediate memory, delayed memory and total scores of RBANS in the experimental group were improved more obviously after intervention (P < 0.05). After aerobic exercise intervention, the ReHo value of the right middle temporal gyrus in the experimental group was lower than before (Alphasim correction, P<0.05), but there was no correlation with the scores of RBANS and PANSS. Conclusion Aerobic exercise can improve the mental symptoms and cognitive function of patients with chronic schizophrenia, and it was found that the regional homogeneity (ReHo) of the right middle temporal gyrus decreases after aerobic exercise.

Schizophrenia; Cognitive function; Aerobic exercise; Regional homogeneity