Frontonasal dysmorphology in bipolar disorder by 3D laser surface imaging and geometric morphometrics: Comparisons with schizophrenia

Abstract

Any developmental relationship between bipolar disorder and schizophrenia engenders continuing debate. As the brain and face emerge in embryological intimacy, brain dysmorphogenesis is accompanied by facial dysmorphogenesis. 3D laser surface imaging was used to capture the facial surface of 13 male and 14 female patients with bipolar disorder in comparison with 61 male and 75 female control subjects and with 37 male and 32 female patients with schizophrenia. Surface images were analysed using geometric morphometrics and 3D visualisations to identify domains of facial shape that distinguish bipolar patients from controls and bipolar patients from those with schizophrenia. Both male and female bipolar patients evidenced significant facial dysmorphology: common to male and female patients was overall facial widening, increased width of nose, narrowing of mouth and upward displacement of the chin; dysmorphology differed between male and female patients for nose length, lip thickness and tragion height. There were few morphological differences in comparison with schizophrenia patients. That dysmorphology of the frontonasal prominences and related facial regions in bipolar disorder is more similar to than different from that found in schizophrenia indicates some common dysmorphogenesis. Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia might reflect similar insult(s) acting over slightly differing time-frames or slightly differing insult(s) acting over a similar time-frame.

Morphological integration in human skull and its possible role in etiogenesis of neuropsychiatric disorders: Deciphering the link between evolution, development and disease

“…Plausibly, these variations accumulated in the long course of evolution (33)(34)(35), through assimilation of co-variances (34,35) and epigenetic changes (36) in the gross and genetic structure of a population respectively, implied morphological integration (34,37). The inclusion of variations in the skull components in the course of evolution might have subjected a population to acquire and propagate multiple errors at molecular level (3) and to express these as aberrant genotypes and phenotypes (38), setting basis for etiogenesis of certain neuropsychiatric disorders (10,12,18,7).…”

“…Now as the skull contains brain in closed and filling proximity, certainly a deformed skull has to harbor a correspondingly deformed brain. The development of skull and brain go in tandem (16) and a cranial deformity may present as a craniofacial anomaly, the associated dysmorphogenesis of brain may result in compromised neural functions at birth or may manifest as a neuropsychiatric disorder later in life (8,10,12) depending upon the degree of disruption and consequent remodeling of molecular regulation in developing brain (39,21).…”

“…A structural basis has, however, been speculated; as in the case of epilepsy (8,9), schizophrenia (10,11), bipolar disorder (12), and certain types of migraines (8,9). This also presents a missing link connecting evolution, embryonic development and multi-factorial etiogenesis of such disorders.…”

Comparing 3D Descriptors for Local Search of Craniofacial Landmarks

“…We address the comparison of local geometry descriptors for highly accurate localization of 3D facial landmarks, in the context of craniofacial research [1,2]. In contrast to applications on facial biometrics, which emphasize robustness to challenging conditions [3], medical applications tend to have a greater focus on the highly accurate localization of landmarks, as they constitute the basis for the analysis, often aimed at detecting quite small shape differences.…”

“…In this work we present a comparison of local descriptors for a set of 26 facial landmarks relevant in the context of craniofacial dysmorphology [1]. The evaluation is performed on a per-landmark basis with a focus on the accuracy that can be achieved when the descriptors are constrained to search in a local neighborhood of the targeted landmark.…”