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Gray matter abnormalities in language processing areas and their associations with verbal ability and positive symptoms in first-episode patients with schizophrenia spectrum psychosis.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Impaired verbal communication is a prominent feature in patients with schizophrenia. Verbal communication difficulties adversely affect psychosocial outcomes and worsen schizophrenia's clinical manifestation. In the present study, we aimed to investigate associations among gray matter (GM) volumes in language processing areas (LPAs), verbal ability, and positive symptoms in first-episode patients (FEPs) with schizophrenia spectrum psychosis. METHODS:We enrolled 94 FEPs and 52 healthy controls (HCs) and subjected them to structural magnetic resonance imaging. The GM volumes of the bilateral pars opercularis (POp), pars triangularis (PTr), planum temporale (PT), Heschl's gyrus (HG), insula, and fusiform gyrus (FG), were estimated and compared between the FEPs and HCs. Verbal intelligence levels and positive symptom severity were examined for correlations with the left LPA volumes. RESULTS:The GM volumes of the left POp, HG, and FG were significantly smaller in the FEPs than in the HCs, while the right regions showed no significant between-group difference. A multiple linear regression model revealed that larger left PT volume was associated with better verbal intelligence in FEPs. In exploratory correlation analysis, several LPAs showed significant correlations with the severity of positive symptoms in FEPs. The left FG volume had a strong inverse correlation with the severity of auditory verbal hallucinations, while the left PT volume was inversely associated with the severity of positive formal thought disorder and delusions. Moreover, the volume of the left insula was positively associated with the severity of bizarre behavior. CONCLUSIONS:The present study suggests that GM abnormalities in the LPAs, which can be detected during the early stage of illness, may underlie impaired verbal communication and positive symptoms in patients with schizophrenia spectrum psychosis.

SUBMITTER: Jung S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6831896 | biostudies-other | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Gray matter abnormalities in language processing areas and their associations with verbal ability and positive symptoms in first-episode patients with schizophrenia spectrum psychosis.

Jung Sra S Lee Arira A Bang Minji M Lee Sang-Hyuk SH

NeuroImage. Clinical 20191019

<h4>Background</h4>Impaired verbal communication is a prominent feature in patients with schizophrenia. Verbal communication difficulties adversely affect psychosocial outcomes and worsen schizophrenia's clinical manifestation. In the present study, we aimed to investigate associations among gray matter (GM) volumes in language processing areas (LPAs), verbal ability, and positive symptoms in first-episode patients (FEPs) with schizophrenia spectrum psychosis.<h4>Methods</h4>We enrolled 94 FEPs ...[more]

PMID: 31670071

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Project description:ContextPrevious magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings have demonstrated psychopathological symptom-related smaller gray matter volumes in various cingulate gyrus subregions in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. However, it is unclear whether these gray matter abnormalities show a subregional specificity to either disorder and whether they show postonset progression.ObjectiveTo determine whether there are initial and progressive gray matter volume deficits in cingulate gyrus subregions in patients with first-episode schizophrenia (FESZ) and patients with first-episode affective psychosis (FEAFF, mainly manic) and their specificity to FESZ or FEAFF.DesignA naturalistic cross-sectional study at first hospitalization for psychosis and a longitudinal follow-up approximately 1(1/2) years later.Setting and participantsPatients were from a private psychiatric hospital. Thirty-nine patients with FESZ and 41 with FEAFF at first hospitalization for psychosis and 40 healthy control subjects (HCs) recruited from the community underwent high-spatial-resolution MRI, with follow-up scans in 17 FESZ patients, 18 FEAFF patients, and 18 HCs. Individual subjects were matched for age, sex, parental socioeconomic status, and handedness.Main outcome measuresCingulate gyrus gray matter volumes in 3 anterior subregions (subgenual, affective, and cognitive) and 1 posterior subregion, and whether there was a paracingulate sulcus.ResultsAt first hospitalization, patients with FESZ showed significantly smaller left subgenual (P = .03), left (P = .03) and right (P = .005) affective, right cognitive (P = .04), and right posterior (P = .003) cingulate gyrus gray matter subregions compared with HCs. Moreover, at the 1(1/2)-year follow-up, patients with FESZ showed progressive gray matter volume decreases in the subgenual (P = .002), affective (P < .001), cognitive (P < .001), and posterior (P = .02) cingulate subregions compared with HCs. In contrast, patients with FEAFF showed only initial (left, P < .001; right, P = .002) and progressive subgenual subregion abnormalities (P < .001). Finally, patients with FESZ showed a less asymmetric paracingulate pattern than HCs (P = .02).ConclusionsPatients with FEAFF and FESZ showed differences in initial gray matter volumes and in their progression. Initial and progressive changes in patients with FEAFF were confined to the subgenual cingulate, a region strongly associated with affective disorder, whereas patients with FESZ evinced widespread initial and progressively smaller volumes.

Dataset Information

Gray matter abnormalities in language processing areas and their associations with verbal ability and positive symptoms in first-episode patients with schizophrenia spectrum psychosis.

Publications

Gray matter abnormalities in language processing areas and their associations with verbal ability and positive symptoms in first-episode patients with schizophrenia spectrum psychosis.

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