Brodmann area analysis of white matter anisotropy and age in schizophrenia

Abstract

Diffusion tensor and structural MRI images were acquired on ninety-six patients with schizophrenia (69 men and 27 women between the ages of 18 and 79 (mean = 39.83, SD = 15.16 DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia according to the Comprehensive Assessment of Symptoms and History). The patients reported a mean age of onset of 23 years (range = 13–38, SD = 6). Patients were divided into an acute subgroup (duration ≤ 3 years, n = 25), and a chronic subgroup (duration > 3 years, n = 64). Ninety-three mentally normal comparison subjects were recruited; 55 men and 38 women between the ages of 18 and 82 (mean = 35.77, SD = 18.12). The MRI images were segmented by Brodmann area, and the fractional anisotropy (FA) for the white matter within each Brodmann area was calculated. The FA in white matter was decreased in patients with schizophrenia broadly across the entire brain, but to a greater extent in white matter underneath frontal, temporal and cingulate cortical areas. Both normals and patients with schizophrenia showed a decrease in anisotropy with age but patients with schizophrenia showed a significantly greater rate of decrease in FA in Brodmann area 10 bilaterally, 11 in the left hemisphere and 34 in the right hemisphere. When the effect of age was removed, patients ill more than three years showed lower anisotropy in frontal motor and cingulate white matter in comparison to acute patients ill three years or less, consistent with an ongoing progression of the illness.

Cortical Grey Matter and Subcortical White Matter Brain Microstructural Changes in Schizophrenia Are Localised and Age Independent: A Case-Control Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study

“…interfering with normal tract formation [75]. Our results are in line with those reported by Schneidermann et al [76] but contrast in some way with those of other studies that describe SZ as a disorder characterized by a neurodegenerative process [40], [43]. On the contrary, other studies report that WM microstructural differences between SZ patients and HC are already present by adulthood but tend to diminish with age, suggesting a recovering process [41], [77].…”

Multimodal white matter imaging to investigate reduced fractional anisotropy and its age-related decline in schizophrenia

“…Furthermore, aging-related decline in FA values and other cerebral integrity measurements may be accelerated in schizophrenia, as reported by studies with sample sizes sufficiently large enough to detect age-by-diagnosis interactions (Mori et al, 2007; Nenadic et al, 2011; Schneiderman et al, 2011; Kochunov et al, 2013b; Koutsouleris et al, 2013; Wright et al, 2014). Importantly, the impact of accelerated aging may not be fully realized because schizophrenia patients have a shorter (by 20 years) average lifespan, even after accounting for suicide (Tsuang and Woolson, 1978; Brown, 1997; Saha et al, 2007; Kirkpatrick et al, 2008).…”

Motor Symptoms and Schizophrenia

“…In both first-episode and chronic patients, alterations were found in motor tracts such as the internal capsule or the corpus callosum [142,206,207,208,209], but also in the premotor and motor cortex [210]. Interestingly, in early-onset schizophrenia, white matter maturation is delayed, especially in bilateral frontal lobes and the pyramidal tract [207,211].…”