Different and Shared Brain Volume Abnormalities in Late- and Early-Onset Schizophrenia

Abstract

The differences in clinical characteristics between late- (LOS) and early-onset schizophrenia (EOS) are well documented. However, very little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying these differences. Here, we compared morphometric abnormalities between patients with EOS and those with LOS. A total of 22 patients with LOS, 24 patients with EOS and 41 healthy control subjects were included in this magnetic resonance imaging study. Brain images were analyzed using DARTEL preprocessing for voxel-based morphometry in SPM8. We tested a main effect of diagnosis in the whole-brain analysis and compared the results among the three groups. We also carried out correlation analyses between regional volumes and clinical variables. Patients with LOS showed larger gray matter (GM) volume of the left precuneus compared with healthy subjects and patients with EOS. Patients with LOS and EOS showed decreased GM volumes in the right insula, left superior temporal gyrus and left orbitofrontal gyrus compared with healthy subjects. A longer duration of illness was associated with reduced GM volume in the temporal pole in patients with EOS. Our findings may help improve our understanding of schizophrenia pathophysiology and shed light on the different and shared neurobiological underpinnings of LOS and EOS.

Whole brain volume changes and its correlation with clinical symptom severity in patients with schizophrenia: A DARTEL-based VBM study

“…In contrast to a previous DARTEL-based VBM study [17], we observed decreased GM volumes in the gyrus rectus in patients with schizophrenia. Frontal lobe dysfunction is related to cognitive and affective deficits in patients with schizophrenia [46].…”

“…One interesting finding of this study is the decreased GM volume of the insula in patients with schizophrenia, which is consistent with the GM volume abnormalities in the insula in schizophrenia observed in previous studies [17,34,35]. Postmortem studies [36,37] have revealed that the reduction of insula volume stems from decreases in the neuronal and glial somal sizes in layer II and III due to poor development and heterogeneity in the upper layers of the insula.…”

“…GM volume abnormalities in the STG have been linked to symptom severity in patients with schizophrenia. Egashira et al [17] reported that patients with late- and early-onset schizophrenia exhibit decreased GM volume in the STG compared with healthy controls. The STG has also been implicated in the experience of auditory hallucinations in patients with schizophrenia [26,27].…”

“…Asami et al [16] reported that patients with first-episode schizophrenia showed GM volume reductions in widespread neocortical regions including the superior temporal gyrus (STG) and the frontal and parietal gyri, as well as the limbic regions using SPM5 software with the DARTEL algorithm. Another VBM study [17] using SPM8 software reported that patients with late- and early-onset schizophrenia exhibited decreased GM volumes in the insula, STG, and orbitofrontal gyrus. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) is the score for accessing the symptom severity of patients with schizophrenia, which is potentially an important factor for evaluating the etiology of schizophrenia.…”

The neuropsychology and neurobiology of late-onset schizophrenia and very-late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis: A critical review

“…Coincidently, media temporal lobe atrophy was significantly smaller in LOS than in Alzheimer's disease [83]. Contrary to observations in LOS, disease duration appeared positively associated with a reduction in the temporal pole in AOS [84]. Additionally, even though the pattern of atrophy described by Rabins et al [73] was comparable to that found in AOS, the main changes were located in the right hemisphere NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND NEUROBIOLOGY OF LOS AND VLOSLP 24 whereas AOS is suggested to show more left hemisphere pathology.…”