Probe Into Abnormality of Brain Gray Matter Volumes in Schizophrenia Patients and Their Healthy Siblings

doi:10.20900/mo.201600013

Abstract

Objective: To investigate gray matter volume differences between schizophrenia patients, their unaffected siblings and healthy controls, and explore possible neurophysiological endophenotypes for schizophrenia.Methods: Three-dimensional, structural magnetic resonance imaging scans of 27 schizophrenia patients, 26 unaffected siblings, and 27 healthy controls were performed. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to investigate the gray matter volume of three groups.Results: Unaffected siblings of schizophrenics, when compared to healthy controls, showed significantly increased gray matter in the left middle occipital gyrus, precuneus, and right thalamus. Patients with schizophrenia had significantly decreased gray matter in the left middle temporal gyrus, superior frontal gyrus, and bilateral inferior temporal gyrus, and increased gray matter in the right thalamus. Schizophrenics showed gray matter decreases in the left superior frontal gyrus and the bilateral inferior temporal gyrus compared to unaffected siblings. There was a significantly negative correlation between the level of decreased gray matter in the left superior frontal gyrus, and the total PANSS score and positive syndrome score.Conclusion: Reduced gray matter region volume observed in unaffected siblings may reflect a compensatory role and provide resilience to schizophrenia, while specific gray matter abnormalities of schizophrenics may be related to the illness itself.

Highlights

Schizophrenia usually occurs in young adult aged 18-25 years
MED ONE 2016, 1 (3) : 4 | Email:mo@qingres.com resilience to schizophrenia, while specific gray matter abnormalities of schizophrenics may be related to the illness itself
The results show that the gray matter volume of the left superior temporal gyrus, the bilateral inferior temporal gyrus, and the left middle temporal gyrus of schizophrenia patients was reduced relative to that of the healthy controls

Summary

Introduction

Schizophrenia usually occurs in young adult aged 18-25 years It is a chronic mental illness characterized by disordered thinking, emotions and behaviors, and failure to comply with internal and external environments. More direct evidence, involving the abnormal brain structures of schizophrenia patients, have come from voxel-based morphology comparative studies. These studies showed reduced gray matter volumes of prefrontal lobe, superior temporal gyrus, hippocampus, and the amygdala in schizophrenia patients, as well as lateral ventricle and third ventricle enlargement [1, 2]. Different neuropathological changes in the brains of schizophrenia patients including cortical atrophy, enlarged ventricles, reduced amygdala and hippocampus volumes, structural disorders, hypothalamic cell loss, and volume reduction were found in many autopsy studies

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Conclusion