Whole brain volume changes and its correlation with clinical symptom severity in patients with schizophrenia: A DARTEL-based VBM study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) volume alterations in whole-brain structures in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls using voxel-based morphometry (VBM), and further to assess the correlation between GM and WM volume variations and symptom severity in schizophrenia. A total of 22 patients with schizophrenia and 22 age-matched healthy controls participated. Magnetic resonance image data were processed using SPM8 software with diffeomorphic anatomical registration via an exponentiated Lie algebra (DARTEL) algorithm. Patients with schizophrenia exhibited significantly decreased GM volumes of the insula, superior temporal gyrus (STG), gyrus rectus, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) compared with healthy controls. The GM volumes of the STG and gyrus rectus were negatively correlated with the positive scales on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and those of the STG and ACC were negatively correlated with the negative scales. The durations of illness in schizophrenia were negatively correlated with the GM volumes of the insula, STG, and ACC. Patients with schizophrenia exhibited significantly decreased WM volumes of the superior frontal gyrus, inferior temporal gyrus, and STG. The WM volumes of the STG were negatively correlated with the duration of illness. Our findings suggest that GM and WM volume abnormalities in the STG are associated with the psychopathology of schizophrenia.

Identifying a neuroanatomical signature of schizophrenia, reproducible across sites and stages, using machine learning with structured sparsity

“…On the other hand, we found a regional increase of grey matter in schizophrenia patients compared to healthy controls in the putamen, caudate and pallidum. These local increases of GM in schizophrenia were also frequently reported in previous studies .…”

“…We indeed found that classification of patients with schizophrenia relied on reduced grey matter compared to healthy controls in the cingulate gyrus, precentral and postcentral gyrus, temporal pole, hippocampus, amygdala and thalamus. These regional deficits of grey matter in schizophrenia patients have been consistently reported in univariate studies .…”

Neuroanatomical abnormalities in first-episode psychosis across independent samples: a multi-centre mega-analysis

“…A decrease in GMV in the gyrus rectus was also found in the largest single-site VBM study of first-episode patients to date which included 93 FEP participants and 175 controls (Meisenzahl et al, 2008); although evidence for normal volume has also been reported (Roiz-Santiáñez et al, 2011;Takayanagi et al, 2011). As hypothesized, GMV in the gyrus rectus was inversely related to positive and negative symptomsconsistent with previous studies (Kim et al, 2017;Sans-Sansa et al, 2013;Szendi et al, 2006).…”

“…Grey matter deficits in the OFC have been reported in established psychosis (e.g. Kim, Kim, & Jeong, 2017;Kong et al, 2015;Rimol et al, 2012;Xu et al, 2017) and, to a lesser extent, in FEP (e.g. Crespo-Facorro, Huang et al, 2015;Keymer-Gausset et al, 2018;Liao et al, 2015;Tordesillas-Gutierrez et al, 2015), consistent with the so-called 'hypo-frontality' hypothesis of psychosis; although increases in this region have also been observed (Gao et al, 2018).…”

Addressing reverse inference in structural brain alterations

“…In morphometric studies of SCZ, the involvement of the insular cortex is frequently reported (84). Also, decreases in gray or white matter volumes have been observed in both ACC and various sites of the prefrontal cortex (85)(86)(87)(88)(89)(90)(91)(92). The thalamus, too, is supposed to play a role in SCZ, on the basis of its many connections with several brain structures, especially with the prefrontal cortex (93,94).…”