Abnormal glucose metabolism in the anterior cingulate cortex in patients with schizophrenia

Abstract

Changes in glucose metabolism were studied in the brains of schizophrenic patients treated with neuroleptics, using [ 18F]fluoro-deoxy-glucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET). Fourteen male and eight female patients in their thirties and forties were studied in a resting state. Data from FDG-PET were processed with an anatomic standardization method, three-dimensional stereotactic surface projections (3D-SSP), which provided relative glucose metabolic values that mitigated the contamination of brain atrophy. Z-score maps indicating metabolic differences between the patient and control groups were also acquired. Metabolic values in 19 regions were evaluated in the right and left hemispheres. Patients showed decreased values in the frontal cortex, primary sensory regions and anterior cingulate cortex, more in the rostral affective subdivision than the dorsal cognitive subdivision in both hemispheres, and increased metabolic values in left and right basal ganglia, left temporal and right medial parietal regions. Values were more decreased in both anterior cingulate regions, and more increased in the right thalamus in male than female patients, suggesting gender-related dysfunction in the anterior cingulate and thalamus in schizophrenia. FDG-PET demonstrated that schizophrenia may be a disorder with a dysfunction of fronto–striatal–thalamic circuitry including the cingulate cortex.