Altered cortical thickness related to clinical severity but not the untreated disease duration in schizophrenia.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Xiao Y
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4266280 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric illness with widespread impairments of cognitive functioning; however, a certain percentage of subjects are known to perform in the normal range on neuropsychological measures. While the cognitive profiles of these individuals have been examined, there has been relatively little attention to the neuroanatomical characteristics of this important subgroup. The aims of this study were to statistically identify schizophrenia subjects with relatively normal cognition, examine their neuroanatomical characteristics relative to their more impaired counterparts using cortical thickness mapping, and to investigate relationships between these characteristics and demographic variables to better understand the nature of cognitive heterogeneity in schizophrenia. Clinical, neuropsychological, and MRI data were collected from schizophrenia (n = 79) and healthy subjects (n = 65). A series of clustering algorithms on neuropsychological scores was examined, and a 2-cluster solution that separated subjects into neuropsychologically near-normal (NPNN) and neuropsychologically impaired (NPI) groups was determined most appropriate. Surface-based cortical thickness mapping was utilized to examine differences in thinning among schizophrenia subtypes compared with the healthy participants. A widespread cortical thinning pattern characteristic of schizophrenia emerged in the NPI group, while NPNN subjects demonstrated very limited thinning relative to healthy comparison subjects. Analysis of illness duration indicated minimal effects on subtype classification and cortical thickness results. Findings suggest a strong link between cognitive impairment and cortical thinning in schizophrenia, where subjects with near-normal cognitive abilities also demonstrate near-normal cortical thickness patterns. While generally supportive of distinct etiological processes for cognitive subtypes, results provide direction for further examination of additional neuroanatomical differences.
| S-EPMC3225719 | biostudies-other
Project description:Cognitive impairments are a core and persistent characteristic of schizophrenia with implications for daily functioning. These show only limited response to antipsychotic treatment and their neural basis is not well characterised. Previous studies point to relationships between cortical thickness and cognitive performance in fronto-temporal brain regions in schizophrenia patients (SZH). There is also evidence that these relationships might be independent of symptom severity, suggesting dissociable disease processes. We set out to explore these possibilities in a sample of 70 SZH and 72 age and gender-matched healthy controls (provided by the Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE)). Cortical thickness within fronto-temporal regions implicated by previous work was considered in relation to performance across various cognitive domains (from the MATRICS Cognitive Battery). Compared to controls, SZH had thinner cortices across most fronto-temporal regions and significantly lower performance on all cognitive domains. Robust relationships with cortical thickness were found: visual learning and attention performance correlated with bilateral superior and middle frontal thickness in SZH only. Correlations between attention performance and right transverse temporal thickness were also specific to SZH. Findings point to the importance of these regions for cognitive performance in SZH, possibly reflecting compensatory processes and/or aberrant connectivity. No links to symptom severity were observed in these regions, suggesting these relationships are dissociable from underlying psychotic symptomology. Findings enhance understanding of the brain structural underpinnings and possible aetiology of cognitive impairment in SZH.
| S-EPMC7973472 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionFunctional networks develop throughout adolescence when anorexia nervosa (AN) normally debuts. In AN, cerebral structural alterations are found in most brain regions and may be related to the observed functional brain changes. Few studies have investigated the functional networks of the brain in adolescent AN patients.. The aim of this explorative study was to investigate multiple functional networks in adolescent AN patients compared to healthy age-matched controls (HC) and the relationship with age, eating disorder symptoms and structural alterations.MethodsIncluded were 29 female inpatients with restrictive AN, and 27 HC. All participants were between the ages of 12 to 18 years. Independent component analysis (ICA) identified 21 functional networks that were analyzed with multivariate and univariate analyses of components and group affiliation (AN vs HC). Age, age × group interaction and AN symptoms were included as covariates. Follow-up correlational analyses of selected components and structural measures (cortical thickness and subcortical volume) were carried out.ResultsDecreased functional connectivity (FC) in AN patients was found in one cortical network, involving mainly the precuneus, and identified as a default mode network (DMN). Cortical thickness in the precuneus was significantly correlated with functional connectivity in this network. Significant group differences were also found in two subcortical networks involving mainly the hippocampus and the amygdala respectively, and a significant interaction effect of age and group was found in both these networks. There were no significant associations between FC and the clinical measures used in the study.ConclusionThe findings from the present study may imply that functional alterations are related to structural alterations in selected regions and that the restricted food intake in AN patients disrupt normal age-related development of functional networks involving the amygdala and hippocampus.
| S-EPMC8496064 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Schizotypal disorder is characterized by odd behavior and attenuated forms of schizophrenic features without the manifestation of overt and sustained psychoses. Past studies suggest that schizotypal disorder shares biological and psychological commonalties with schizophrenia. Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have demonstrated both common and distinct regional gray matter changes between schizophrenia and schizotypal disorder. However, no study has compared cortical thickness, which is thought to be a specific indicator of cortical atrophy, between schizophrenia and schizotypal disorder. The subjects consisted of 102 schizophrenia and 46 schizotypal disorder patients who met the International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition criteria and 79 gender- and age-matched healthy controls. Each participant underwent a T1-weighted 3-D MRI scan using a 1.5-Tesla scanner. Cortical thickness was estimated using FreeSurfer. Consistent with previous studies, schizophrenia patients exhibited wide-spread cortical thinning predominantly in the frontal and temporal regions as compared with healthy subjects. Patients with schizotypal disorder had a significantly reduced cortical thickness in the left fusiform and parahippocampal gyri, right medial superior frontal gyrus, right inferior frontal gyrus, and right medial orbitofrontal cortex as compared with healthy controls. Schizophrenia patients had thinner cortices in the left precentral and paracentral gyri than those with schizotypal disorder. Common cortical thinning patterns observed in schizophrenia and schizotypal disorder patients may be associated with vulnerability to psychosis. Our results also suggest that distinct cortical changes in schizophrenia and schizotypal disorder may be associated with the differences in the manifestation of clinical symptoms among these disorders.
| S-EPMC7406196 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Schizophrenia is a neurodevelopmental disorder with high heritability. Several lines of evidence indicate that the PRODH gene may be related to the disorder. Therefore, our study investigates the effects of 12 polymorphisms of PRODH on schizophrenia and its phenotypes. To further evaluate the roles of the associated variants in the disorder, we have conducted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to assess cortical volumes and thicknesses. A total of 192 patients were evaluated using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID), Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Calgary Depression Scale, Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) and Clinical Global Impression (CGI) instruments. The study included 179 controls paired by age and gender. The samples were genotyped using the real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP)-PCR and Sanger sequencing methods. A sample of 138 patients and 34 healthy controls underwent MRI scans. One polymorphism was associated with schizophrenia (rs2904552), with the G-allele more frequent in patients than in controls. This polymorphism is likely functional, as predicted by PolyPhen and SIFT, but it was not associated with brain morphology in our study. In summary, we report a functional PRODH variant associated with schizophrenia that may have a neurochemical impact, altering brain function, but is not responsible for the cortical reductions found in the disorder.
| S-EPMC3912045 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Structural imaging studies have consistently found reduced gray matter thickness of the cerebral cortex in schizophrenia, a finding that is evident in first episode psychosis and may be progressive in some cases. Although genetic predisposition and medication effects may contribute to cortical thinning, we hypothesize that the cumulative effects of stress may represent an environmental factor impacting brain morphology in schizophrenia. We examined the relationship between allostatic load, an index of peripheral biomarkers representing the cumulative effects of stress, and cortical thickness. Allostatic load was calculated for 44 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) and 33 normal controls (NC) based on 13 cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, immune, and metabolic measurements. Controlling for age, SSD had significantly elevated allostatic load as compared with NC (p=0.008). Controlling for age, whole brain average cortical thickness was lower in SSD patients compared to NC (p=0.008). However, once allostatic load was accounted for, the group difference in cortical thickness became marginal (p=0.058). Exploratory analyses on subcomponents of allostatic load suggested that elevated immune marker C-reactive protein, stress hormones, and cardiovascular indices within allostatic load were more strongly associated with reduced cortical thickness in SSD. In NC, only the association between immune marker C-reactive protein and cortical thickness was replicated. These results support the hypothesis that allostatic load may account for some of the gray matter deficits observed in schizophrenia. Among the allostatic indices, the inflammatory mechanism appears particularly relevant to cortical thickness in both schizophrenia patients and normal controls.
| S-EPMC5336512 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The large majority of structural MRI studies of major depressive disorder (MDD) investigated volumetric changes in chronic medicated patients in whom course of illness and treatment effects may impact anatomic measurements. Further, in few studies, separate measurements of cortical thickness and surface area have been performed that reflect different neurobiological processes regulated by different genetic mechanisms. In the present study, we investigated both cortical thickness and surface area in first-episode, treatment-naïve, mid-life MDD to elucidate the core pathophysiology of this disease and its early impact on the brain. We observed increased cortical thickness in the right hemisphere, including medial orbitofrontal gyrus, pars opercularis, rostral middle frontal gyrus and supramarginal gyrus. Increased thickness of rostral middle frontal gyrus was negatively related with depression severity on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. Furthermore, MDD patients showed significantly increased associations in cortical thickness measurements among areas where increased cortical thickness was observed. Analysis of pial area revealed a trend toward increased surface area in the left parahippocampal gyrus in MDD. To permit comparison of our data with those of previous gray matter volume studies, voxel-based morphometry was performed. That analysis revealed significantly increased gray matter volume in left paracentral lobule, left superior frontal gyrus, bilateral cuneus and thalamus which form limbic-cortico-striato-pallido-thalamic loops. These changes in first-episode, treatment-naïve, mid-life MDD patients may reflect an active illness-related cortical change close to illness onset, and thus potentially provide important new insight into the early neurobiology of the disorder.
| S-EPMC4012282 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Schizophrenia is a neurodevelopmental disorder with altered expression of GABA-related genes in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). However, whether these gene expression abnormalities reflect disturbances in postnatal developmental processes before clinical onset or arise as a consequence of clinical illness remains unclear.Expression levels for 7 GABA-related transcripts (vesicular GABA transporter [vGAT], GABA membrane transporter [GAT1], GABAA receptor subunit ?1 [GABRA1] [novel in human and monkey cohorts], glutamic acid decarboxylase 67 [GAD67], parvalbumin, calretinin, and somatostatin [previously reported in human cohort, but not in monkey cohort]) were quantified in the PFC from 42 matched pairs of schizophrenia and comparison subjects and from 49 rhesus monkeys ranging in age from 1 week postnatal to adulthood.Levels of vGAT and GABRA1, but not of GAT1, messenger RNAs (mRNAs) were lower in the PFC of the schizophrenia subjects. As previously reported, levels of GAD67, parvalbumin, and somatostatin, but not of calretinin, mRNAs were also lower in these subjects. Neither illness duration nor age accounted for the levels of the transcripts with altered expression in schizophrenia. In monkey PFC, developmental changes in expression levels of many of these transcripts were in the opposite direction of the changes observed in schizophrenia. For example, mRNA levels for vGAT, GABRA1, GAD67, and parvalbumin all increased with age.Together with published reports, these findings support the interpretation that the altered expression of GABA-related transcripts in schizophrenia reflects a blunting of normal postnatal development changes, but they cannot exclude a decline during the early stages of clinical illness.
| S-EPMC4266281 | biostudies-other
Project description:Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) manifests as chronic abdominal pain. One pathophysiological theory states that the brain-gut axis is responsible for pain control in the intestine. Although several studies have discussed the structural changes in the brain of IBS patients, most of these studies have been conducted in Western populations. Different cultures and sexes experience different pain sensations and have different pain responses. Accordingly, we aimed to identify the specific changes in the cortical thickness of Asian women with IBS and to compare these data to those of non-Asian women with IBS.Thirty Asian female IBS patients (IBS group) and 39 healthy individuals (control group) were included in this study. Brain structural magnetic resonance imaging was performed. We used FreeSurfer to analyze the differences in the cortical thickness and their correlations with patient characteristics.The left cuneus, left rostral middle frontal cortex, left supramarginal cortex, right caudal anterior cingulate cortex, and bilateral insula exhibited cortical thinning in the IBS group compared with those in the controls. Furthermore, the brain cortical thickness correlated negatively the severity as well as duration of abdominal pain.Some of our findings differ from those of Western studies. In our study, all of the significant brain regions in the IBS group exhibited cortical thinning compared with those in the controls. The differences in cortical thickness between the IBS patients and controls may provide useful information to facilitate regulating abdominal pain in IBS patients. These findings offer insights into the association of different cultures and sexes with differences in cortical thinning in patients with IBS.
| S-EPMC5578615 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundNumerous neuroimaging studies using surface-based morphometry analyses have reported altered cortical thickness among patients with schizophrenia, but the results have been inconsistent. We sought to provide a whole-brain meta-analysis, which may help enhance the spatial accuracy of identification.MethodsWe conducted a meta-analysis of whole-brain studies that explored cortical thickness alteration among adult patients with schizophrenia, including first-episode patients with schizophrenia, and patients with chronic schizophrenia, compared with healthy controls by using the seed-based d mapping with permutation of subject images (SDM-PSI) software.ResultsA systematic literature search identified 25 studies (33 data sets) of cortical thickness, including 2008 patients with schizophrenia and 2004 healthy controls. Overall, patients with schizophrenia showed decreased cortical thickness in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and bilateral insula extending to the superior temporal gyrus (STG). Subgroup meta-analysis reported that patients with chronic schizophrenia showed decreased cortical thickness in the right insula extending to the right IFG. There was no significant cortical thickness difference between first-episode patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls.LimitationsThe results of meta-regression analyses should be viewed cautiously since they were driven by a small number of studies or did not overlap with the between-group differences found in the primary analyses.ConclusionThe meta-analysis suggested robust cortical thickness reduction in the IFG, insula and STG among adult patients with schizophrenia, particularly in those with chronic schizophrenia. The results provide useful insights to understanding the underlying pathophysiology of schizophrenia.
| S-EPMC10743639 | biostudies-literature