Postmortem Assessment of Thalamic Nuclear Volumes in Subjects With Schizophrenia

Byne, William; Buchsbaum, Monte S.; Mattiace, Linda A.; Hazlett, Erin A.; Kemether, Eileen; Elhakem, Sharif L.; Purohit, Dushyant P.; Haroutunian, Vahram; Jones, Liesl B.

doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.159.1.59

Cited by 223 publications

(147 citation statements)

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“…A number of studies indicate that heteromodal areas of the association cortex, including the prefrontal cortex, are key sites of pathology in the schizophrenic brain (Pearlson et al, 1996;Barch et al, 2001;Selemon, 2001). Thalamic nuclei that are reciprocally connected with heteromodal cortical areas have been shown to be smaller and have fewer neurons in schizophrenic subjects (Pakkenberg, 1990;Popken et al, 2000;Young et al, 2000;Byne et al, 2002;Danos et al, 2002;; however, our analysis suggests that the LGN does not exhibit comparable reductions in volume and neuronal number.…”

Section: Clinical Context Of Visual Deficits In Schizophreniacontrasting

confidence: 54%

“…As reduction of thalamic volume and neuronal number has been described in several association nuclei of the thalamus, including the mediodorsal, anterior, pulvinar, and ventral lateral posterior nuclei (Pakkenberg, 1990;Popken et al, 2000;Young et al, 2000;Byne et al, 2002;Danos et al, 2002;, one possible explanation for the absence of cell loss in the LGN is that neuronal pathology in schizophrenia is restricted to nuclei with reciprocal connections to higher association cortices. It should be noted, however, that none of the postmortem studies that have described neuronal deficits in schizophrenic patients examined brains from the Stanley Foundation, the cohort that was analyzed in the present study.…”

Section: Comparable Cell Number In Schizophrenic and Control Subjectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In vivo neuroimaging studies of schizophrenic subjects have found smaller whole thalamic volume and altered thalamic shape (Ettinger et al, 2001;Gilbert et al, 2001;Csernansky et al, 2004), altered metabolic activity (Buchsbaum et al, 1996Hazlett et al, 1999 and reduction of volume in subregions or specific nuclei of the thalamus (Andreasen et al, 1994;Byne et al, 2001;Kemether et al, 2003). In addition, postmortem studies of brains from schizophrenic subjects have reported a reduction in total neuronal number and volume of individual thalamic nuclei, e.g., the mediodorsal, anterior, pulvinar and ventral lateral posterior nuclei (Pakkenberg, 1990;Popken et al, 2000;Young et al, 2000;Byne et al, 2002;Danos et al, 2002;. It should be noted, however, that several studies have not found evidence of thalamic pathology in schizophrenic subjects (Portas et al, 1998;Arciniegas et al, 1999;Deicken et al, 2002;Cullen et al, 2003;Dorph-Petersen et al, 2004;Preuss et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stereologic analysis of the lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus in normal and schizophrenic subjects

Selemon

Begovic

2007

Psychiatry Research

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Reduction of volume and neuronal number has been found in several association nuclei of the thalamus in schizophrenic subjects. Recent evidence suggests that schizophrenic patients exhibit abnormalities in early visual processing and that many of the observed perceptual deficits are consistent with dysfunction of the magnocellular pathway, i.e. the visual relay from peripheral retinal cells to the two ventrally located magnocellular layers of the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). The present study was undertaken to determine whether abnormalities in cell number and volume of the LGN are associated with schizophrenia and whether the structural alterations are restricted to either the magnocellular or parvocellular subdivisions of the LGN. Series of Nissl-stained sections spanning the LGN were obtained from 15 schizophrenic and 15 normal control subjects. The optical disector/ fractionator sampling method was used to estimate total neuronal number, total glial number and volume of the magnocellular and parvocellular subdivisions of the LGN. Cell number and volume of the LGN in schizophrenic subjects were not abnormal. Volume of both parvocellular and magnocellular layers of the LGN decreased with age. These findings do not support the hypothesis that early visual processing deficits are due to reduction of neuronal number in the LGN.

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Section: Clinical Context Of Visual Deficits In Schizophreniacontrasting

confidence: 54%

Section: Comparable Cell Number In Schizophrenic and Control Subjectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stereologic analysis of the lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus in normal and schizophrenic subjects

Selemon

Begovic

2007

Psychiatry Research

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“…Reductions in the total volume of the thalamic complex have been reported in schizophrenia subjects (for review, see Konick and Friedman, 2001;Sim et al, 2006). Moreover, postmortem and neuroimaging studies of individual thalamic nuclei suggest specific involvement of the anterior nucleus, mediodorsal nucleus, and pulvinar, all of which project to frontotemporal regions of the cortex (Pakkenberg, 1992;Young et al, 2000;Byne et al, 2002;Kemether et al, 2003;Danos et al, 2005). Previously, we reported abnormalities of tha-lamic shape in schizophrenia subjects relative to healthy controls, and found deformities in the anterior and posterior extremes of the structure in keeping with involvement of the anterior-most nuclei and pulvinar (Csernansky et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thalamic Shape Abnormalities in Individuals with Schizophrenia and Their Nonpsychotic Siblings

Harms

Wang²,

Mamah³

et al. 2007

J. Neurosci.

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Deficits in the volume of the thalamus have been observed in both individuals with schizophrenia and their nonpsychotic relatives. However, no studies to date have examined the underlying pattern of thalamic shape change in relatives of individuals with schizophrenia. This study examined the volume and shape of the thalamus in schizophrenia subjects, their siblings, and healthy control individuals. T1-weighted magnetic resonance scans were collected in a group of young subjects with schizophrenia (mean age, 23 years) and their nonpsychotic siblings (n ϭ 25 pairs), and control subjects and their siblings (n ϭ 40 pairs). Thalamic surfaces were generated using high-dimensional brain mapping. A canonical weighting function was derived from the contrast between schizophrenia and control subjects and then used to generate a canonical shape score for all subjects. Maps of the estimated surface displacement between groups were also created to visualize the thalamic shape differences between groups. The thalamic canonical scores of the siblings of the schizophrenia probands were intermediate between the probands and healthy control subjects. These siblings also displayed an intermediate degree of the inward surface deformation of the anterior and posterior thalamus that was present between schizophrenia probands and controls. There was no main effect of group status on thalamic volume and no significant correlations of the structural measures with measures of psychopathology or cognitive function. Our results indicate that thalamic shape abnormalities are present in relatively young individuals with schizophrenia and their siblings. Inward deformation of the anterior and posterior regions of the thalamus represents a potential neuroanatomical endophenotype of schizophrenia.

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“…Many illnesses, including Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, and chronic pain syndrome, are associated with changes in the thalamus (1)(2)(3)(4). Dissection or stimulation of certain regions in the thalamus can reduce symptoms of some of these illnesses (5,6).…”

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confidence: 99%

Thalamus segmentation based on the local diffusion direction: A group study

Mang

Busza

Reiterer³

et al. 2011

Magnetic Resonance in Med

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Fast and accurate segmentation of deep gray matter regions in the brain is important for clinical applications such as surgical planning for the placement of deep brain stimulation implants. Mapping anatomy from stereotactic atlases to patient data is problematic because of individual differences in subject anatomy that are not accounted for by commonly used atlases. We present a segmentation method for individual subject diffusion tensor MR data that is based on local diffusion information to identify subregions of the thalamus. We show the correspondence of our segmentation results to anatomy by comparison with stereotactic atlas data. Importantly, we verify the consistency of our segmentation by evaluating the method on 63 healthy volunteers. Our method is fast, reliable, and independent of any segmentation before the classification of regions within the thalamus. Many illnesses, including Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, and chronic pain syndrome, are associated with changes in the thalamus (1-4). Dissection or stimulation of certain regions in the thalamus can reduce symptoms of some of these illnesses (5,6). Currently, surgical planning is based on MR imaging and anatomical predictions created by mapping a stereotactic brain atlas onto visually identifiable landmarks in the patient's brain (7). However, anatomical variability of deep gray matter structures relative to currently used atlases can make such techniques challenging (8). Therefore, development of more accurate and efficient segmentation techniques for deep gray matter regions, such as the thalamus, is of increasing clinical importance. Unfortunately, the thalamus has a mostly homogeneous signal value in standard anatomical MR images (see Fig. 1a). Segmentation of thalamic nuclei is therefore not possible on these kinds of data sets. Although some substructures of the thalamus are visible on higher resolution anatomical MR images or magnetization transfer images (see for example (9-11)), high-resolution imaging also increases the measurement time, which is a disadvantage for clinical applications. Deoni et al. (9) successfully used modified k-means clustering to segment thalamic nuclei in high-resolution quantitative MR images. The results of this method were very promising, however the technique required manual segmentation of the whole thalamus and prior information from stereotactic atlases (12) to reduce the computational cost of the segmentation.Other approaches use diffusion tensor MR-imaging (DTI) to segment individual regions in the thalamus. DTI measures the direction of water molecular diffusion to detect the dominant orientation of fibers in living tissue (for details on DTI see for example (13,14)). It therefore has a high potential to be useful in the segmentation of the thalamus because individual thalamic nuclei have wellstructured fiber connections to defined cortical and subcortical areas. Figure 1b shows an example of how diffusion information can aid in distinguishing thalamic substructures. Indeed, there have been several r...

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Postmortem Assessment of Thalamic Nuclear Volumes in Subjects With Schizophrenia

Abstract: Schizophrenia is associated with volume and neuronal changes in the mediodorsal nucleus and pulvinar, the major association nuclei of the thalamus, whereas total thalamic volume and the volumes of anterior and centromedian nuclei were not significantly altered.

Cited by 223 publications

References 23 publications

Stereologic analysis of the lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus in normal and schizophrenic subjects

Stereologic analysis of the lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus in normal and schizophrenic subjects

Thalamic Shape Abnormalities in Individuals with Schizophrenia and Their Nonpsychotic Siblings

Thalamus segmentation based on the local diffusion direction: A group study

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