Possible dysregulation of cortical plasticity in auditory verbal hallucinations–A cortical thickness study in schizophrenia

Auditory Cortex Characteristics in Schizophrenia: Associations With Auditory Hallucinations

“…The present finding of significant group differences between AH+ and AH− patients only in the left hemisphere is concordant with both Van Swam et al 30 who reported thinner cortex in the left HG in patients with AH compared to non-hallucinating patients, and Oertel-Knöchel et al 31 who found a negative correlation between predisposition towards hallucinations and cortical thickness in the left STG. Our findings differ from those of Chen et al 32 who reported significantly thinner cortex only in the right HG in patients with a lifetime history of AH compared to non-hallucinating first-episode schizophrenia patients.…”

“…Only a few previous studies have investigated if thickness of the auditory cortex is related to AH in schizophrenia patients, [30][31][32] and previous sample sizes have been small, ranging between 20-49 patients. The present finding of significant group differences between AH+ and AH− patients only in the left hemisphere is concordant with both Van Swam et al 30 who reported thinner cortex in the left HG in patients with AH compared to non-hallucinating patients, and Oertel-Knöchel et al 31 who found a negative correlation between predisposition towards hallucinations and cortical thickness in the left STG.…”

“…29 A limited number of studies have investigated associations between AH and cortical thickness, with mixed results for the auditory cortex. Van Swam et al 30 found reduced cortical thickness bilaterally in the STG and in the left HG among 10 patients with AH compared to 10 nonhallucinating patients. However, cortical thickness in the HG in the hallucinating group did not differ from controls, and the non-hallucinating patients showed thicker cortex compared with controls.…”

Age-related brain structural alterations as an intermediate phenotype of psychosis

“…Similar to grey matter volume, both decreases and increases were reported in previous studies evaluating cortical thickness in patients with schizophrenia or psychosis. 23,[60][61][62][63] Our findings suggest that both types of alterations coexist in patients with psychosis, indicating a more complex picture than just global cortical thinning as suggested in previous studies. 62,64 Possible explanations for such bidirectional alterations could be a more complex neurodevelopmental misbalance of cortical development or potential compensatory effects across different brain regions.…”

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy investigations of functionally defined language areas in schizophrenia patients with and without auditory hallucinations

“…In addition, the detected positive correlation between NAA in left HG and psychopathology in all patients is also in contrast with the hypothesis that schizophrenia might be a progressive neurodegenerative disease involving left temporal regions. However, we have recently suggested that a gray matter deficit found in language and primary auditory areas in AH compared to NH may reflect a loss of neuropil (compatible with experiencedependent modeling of the cortical column architecture) rather than neuronal cell degeneration [49]. In addition, all of the above interpretations of NAA levels solely base on the putative role of NAA as a marker for the density of healthy neurons, but NAA levels may also reflect mitochondrial activity, osmolytic balance and has other putative roles, which led K.K.…”