Decreased bilateral thalamic gray matter volume in first-episode schizophrenia with prominent hallucinatory symptoms: A volumetric MRI study.

Peng Huang,Long-Biao Cui,Xia Zhu,Danmin Miao,Chen Li,Yunchun Chen,Yibin Xi,Zhong-Lin Lu,Qingrong Tan,Wenming Liu,Xiangrui Li,Hong Yin,Weiguo Li

doi:10.1038/srep14505

Abstract

Studies comparing gray matter (GM) volume of schizophrenic patients with or without auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) to that of normal controls remain controversial. This project aims to investigate changes of GM volumes of drug-naïve schizophrenic patients with and without AVHs. Eighteen first episode schizophrenic (FES) patients with AVHs, 18 FES patients without AVHs, and 18 healthy controls were scanned using structural MRI. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis was conducted to investigate changes of GM volume among the three groups. Patients with and without AVHs exhibited reduced GM volumes relative to normal controls in the left superior temporal gyrus, frontal regions, cerebellum and caudate. Further analysis of the GM of subcortical structures found that patients with AVHs had reduced thalamic volume than healthy controls. No significant difference was found between patients with and without AVHs. Significant correlation was found between the total scores of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and bilateral thalamic volume. ROC analysis of thalamic volumes of the patients with AVHs and normal controls showed that the area under the curve was 0.698 (P = 0.043). The decreased thalamic volumes might serve as a biomarker for discriminating FES AVHs patients from normals.

Highlights

Thalamic and nucleus accumben volumes in FES patients have been reported[8,9]
We hypothesize that GM volume in a few brain regions, including the left superior temporal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and thalamus, is reduced in FES patients with auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) compared to normal controls
Difference in GM volume was found in the bilateral thalamus, left superior temporal gyrus (STG), right IFG and precentral gyrus among the three groups (F(2, 48) = 8.004, P < 0.001 uncorrected, cluster size >65

Summary

Introduction

Some longitudinal studies found no volumetric difference of any brain structure between patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls[10]. The whole brain VBM has many advantages over the ROI approach. It is automated rather than observer-based[15]; it covers the whole brain and involves less laborious processing[16]. We conducted a whole brain VBM analysis to investigate GM volume changes in FES patients with and without AVHs. We hypothesize that GM volume in a few brain regions, including the left superior temporal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and thalamus, is reduced in FES patients with AVHs compared to normal controls

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion