Hippocampus and Basal Ganglia Pathology in Chronic Schizophrenics. A Replication Study from a New Brain Collection

MRI in schizophrenia: basal ganglia and white matter T1 times

“…Two studies have found a bilateral increase of Tj relaxation times in the putamen and globus pallidus of schizophrenics compared to controls (Fujimoto et al 1985;Besson et al 1987). Neuropathological findings, however, suggest that if there is any abnormality in the basal ganglia it is likely to be restricted to the internal portion of the globus pallidus, where reduced volume has been described (Bogerts et al 1990). Longstanding interest in the dopamine-rich basal ganglia as a possible site of disorder in schizophrenia, arising from clinical features like catatonia and tardive dyskinesia along with the dopamine antagonism of antipsychotic drugs (McKenna, 1987), make it important to follow up any putative abnormality in these structures.…”

“…It focused solely on Tj times, and built on previous work that identified the major sources of variance in the T 1 times from white matter of healthy controls (Harvey et al 1991). The underlying hypotheses were, first, that any T 1 increase in the basal ganglia would be restricted to the globus pallidus (Bogerts et al 1990) and, despite the findings of Fujimoto et al (1985) and Besson et al (1987), would not extend to the putamen. Secondly, given that gliosis, the commonest pathology of white matter, increases its T 1 time (Barnes et al 1988), the failure to detect gliosis neuropathologically using quantitative methods (Roberts et al 1987;Stevens C. et al 1988) would be reflected by the presence of normal T l values in the white matter.…”