Cortical thinning in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia

Abstract

Although schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) share some clinical features such as psychotic symptoms and cognitive dysfunctions, little is known about possible pathophysiological similarities between both diseases. Therefore, we investigated the potential topographical overlap and segregation of cortical thickness abnormalities in SZ and BD patients.We analyzed 3D-anatomical magnetic resonance imaging datasets with the FreeSurfer 5.1.0 software to examine cortical thickness and volumes in three groups of participants: n=34 BD patients, n=32 SZ patients and n=38 healthy controls.We observed similar bilateral cortical thickness reductions in BD and SZ patients predominantly in the pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus and in the anterior and posterior cingulate. We also found disease-specific cortical reductions in the orbitofrontal cortex for BD patients and in dorsal frontal and temporal areas for SZ. Furthermore, inferior frontal gyrus cortical thinning was associated with deficits in psychomotor speed and executive functioning in SZ patients and with age at onset in both groups.Our findings support the hypothesis that thinning of the frontal cortex may represent a biological feature shared by both disease groups. The associations between cognitive deficits and the reported findings in SZ and to a lesser degree in BD patients add to the functional relevance of our results. However, further studies are needed to corroborate a model of shared pathophysiological disease features across BD and SZ.