Multifractal dynamic changes of spontaneous brain activity in psychiatric disorders: Adult attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia

Sihai Guan; Ziwei Zhang; Chun Meng; Bharat Biswal

doi:10.1016/j.jad.2025.01.007

Multifractal dynamic changes of spontaneous brain activity in psychiatric disorders: Adult attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia

J Affect Disord. 2025 Jan 5:S0165-0327(25)00008-4. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2025.01.007. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Sihai Guan¹, Ziwei Zhang², Chun Meng³, Bharat Biswal⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Electronic and Information, Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu 610041, China; Key Laboratory of Electronic and Information Engineering, State Ethnic Affairs Commission, Chengdu 610041, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
² School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
³ School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁴ School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China; Department of Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 39765289
DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2025.01.007

Abstract

It is one of the strategies to study the complexity of spontaneous fluctuation of brain neurons based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI), but the multifractal characteristics of spontaneous fluctuation of brain neurons in psychiatric diseases need to be studied. Therefore, this paper will study the multifractal spontaneous brain activity changes in psychiatric disorders using the multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis algorithm based on the UCLA datasets. Specifically: (1) multifractal characteristics in adult attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder (BP), and schizophrenia (SCHZ); (2) the source of those multifractal characteristics. Results showed that for adult ADHD, BP, and SCHZ, all 6 functional brain regions exhibit multifractal characteristics, and the multifractal spectrum shows a reduction in bell-shaped asymmetry, unlike the intensity of healthy control (HC) asymmetry. Besides, compared with HC, the multifractal sources of all functional brain regions were fat-tail probability distribution and the long-range dependence correlation, but the intensity of fat-tail probability distribution was decreased and the long-range dependence correlation was increased. The results provide a reference for further understanding the complexity of spontaneous fluctuation of neurons in psychiatric disorders.

Keywords: ADHD/BP/SCHZ; Multifractal; Network-level; rs-fMRI.