Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Study of Catatonia: Use of DWI and Resting State fMRI

Background: catatonia is the focus of neurophysiological research as a syndrome with unspecified pathogenesis. Modern neuroimaging techniques contribute to the understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of this disorder. The aim was to conduct a systematic review of the scientific literature to confirm that catatonia is associated with structural and functional changes in the brain. The analysis made up researches using diffusion MRI for judgement on indirect measure of changes in white or gray matter density using a fractional anisotropy (FA) and resting state functional MRI for assessment a measure of connectivity. Materials and methods: PubMed, ScienceDirect and Mendeley databases were searched using the search terms (and their derivatives) for: “catatonia”, “resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging” and “catatonia”, “diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging”. The search yielded 147 publications for preliminary screening, of which 96 were on fMRI of catatonia and 51 on dMRI. During the screening stage, duplicates and articles that could not be accessed were removed. This left 21 fMRI articles and 18 dMRI articles. After which the articles were checked for compliance with the inclusion criteria: 1) original full-text articles; 2) identification of catatonia not caused by a somatic disease and verified using the Bush–Francis and/or Northoff psychometric scales; 3) age of the examined 18 years and over. 3 fMRI and 3 dMRI articles were included. Conclusions: aberrations of FA indicators were found in catatonia, which may be associated with the density of the white matter of the brain. Changes in connectivity in the somatosensory network have been identified, which allows to consider these disorders as potential markers of catatonia. To confirm the hypothesis and results obtained, further research is required due to the small number of publications on this topic.