Reduction of intracortical inhibition (ICI) correlates with cognitive performance and psychopathology symptoms in schizophrenia

Cognitive impairment is a core symptom of schizophrenia (SZ), with GABAergic dysfunction in the brain potentially serving as a critical pathological mechanism underlying this condition. Intracortical inhibition (ICI), which includes short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI) and long-interval intracortical inhibition (LICI), can be used to assess the inhibitory function of cortical GABAergic neurons. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between ICI and cognitive function, as well as psychopathological symptoms, in SZ patients. We recruited 130 SZ patients and 105 healthy controls (HCs). All subjects underwent paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (ppTMS) measurements, which included resting motor threshold (RMT), SICI and LICI. The cognitive function of all subjects was assessed using the Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia (MATRICS) Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB). The psychopathological symptoms of the SZ group were assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). We examined group differences in MCCB scores, RMT, SICI, and LICI. Within the SZ group, we assessed the relationship between ICI and cognitive function, as well as psychopathological symptoms. Two-way ANOVA, Mann–Whitney U test, Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, and partial Spearman correlation analysis were performed. The SZ group showed a worse cognitive score in all 6 cognitive dimensions of the MCCB compared to the HC group (all p < 0.05). The SZ group had lower degree of SICI and LICI compared to the HC group (both p < 0.05). ROC curves analysis showed that SICI and LICI all displayed good performance in differentiating SZ patients and HCs (both p < 0.05), and SICI exhibited a better performance, yielding an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.856 (95% CI 0.807–0.904). Furthermore, in the SZ group, SICI demonstrated a significant negative correlation with PANSS positive score, negative score, general psychopathology score, and total score (all p_Bonferroni < 0.05), and LICI demonstrated a significant negative correlation with PANSS positive score, general psychopathology score and total score (all p_Bonferroni < 0.05). Additionally, in the SZ group, SICI demonstrated a significant positive correlation with speed of processing score, working memory score, verbal learning score, visual learning score, and reasoning and problem-solving score of the MCCB (all p_Bonferroni < 0.05), while LICI was only weakly positive correlated with speed of processing score of the MCCB (r = 0.247, p = 0.005, p_Bonferroni = 0.03). Our results demonstrate that the reduction of ICI could serve as a trait-dependent in-vivo biomarker of GABAergic deficits for SZ and related cognitive impairments.