Anatomically related grey and white matter abnormalities in adolescent-onset schizophrenia

作者：Gwenaëlle Douaud, Stephen M. Smith, Mark Jenkinson, Timothy E.J. Behrens, Heidi Johansen‐Berg, James Vickers, Susan James, Natalie Voets, Kate E. Watkins, Paul M. Matthews, Anthony James · 发表于：Brain · 年份：2007 · DOI：10.1093/brain/awm184 · 被引用次数：803 · 研究领域：Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications、Functional Brain Connectivity Studies、Schizophrenia research and treatment

Adolescent-onset schizophrenia provides an exceptional opportunity to explore the neuropathology of schizophrenia free from the potential confounds of prolonged periods of medication and disease interactions with age-related neurodegeneration. Our aim was to investigate structural grey and white matter abnormalities in adolescent-onset schizophrenia. Whole-brain voxel-wise investigation of both grey matter topography and white matter integrity (Fractional Anisotropy) were carried out on 25 adolescent-onset schizophrenic patients and 25 healthy adolescents. We employed a refined voxel-based morphometry-like approach for grey matter analysis and the recently introduced method of tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) for white matter analysis. Both kinds of studies revealed widespread abnormalities characterized by a lower fractional anisotropy neuroanatomically associated with localized reduced grey matter in the schizophrenic group. The grey matter changes can either be interpreted as the result of a locally reduced cortical thickness or as a manifestation of different patterns of gyrification. There was a widespread reduction of anisotropy in the white matter, especially in the corpus callosum. We speculate that the anisotropy changes relate to the functional changes in brain connectivity that are thought to play a central role in the clinical expression of the disease. The distribution of grey matter changes was consistent with clinical features of the disease. For example, ...