Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy and thought disorder in childhood schizophrenia

Abstract

Objective Although magnetic resonance spectroscopy has identified metabolic abnormalities in adult and childhood schizophrenia, no prior studies have investigated the relationship between neurometabolites and thought disorder. This study examined this association in language-related brain regions using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (1H MRSI). Method MRSI was acquired bilaterally from 28 youth with childhood-onset schizophrenia and 34 healthy control subjects in inferior frontal, middle frontal, and superior temporal gyri at 1.5 T and short echo time (TR/TE=1500/30 ms). CSF-corrected “total NAA” (tNAA; N-acetyl-aspartate+N-acetyl-aspartyl-glutamate), glutamate+glutamine (Glx), creatine+phosphocreatine (Cr+PCr), choline compounds (Cho), and myo-inositol (mI) were assayed in manually drawn regions-of-interest partitioned into gray matter, white matter, and CSF and then coregistered with MRSI. Speech samples of all subjects were coded for thought disorder. Results In the schizophrenia group, the severity of formal thought disorder correlated significantly with tNAA in the left inferior frontal and superior temporal gyri and with Cr+PCr in left superior temporal gyrus. Conclusions Neurometabolite concentrations in language-related brain regions are associated with thought disorder in childhood-onset schizophrenia.

Thalamic glutamate decreases with cigarette smoking

“…Peaks fit included Glu as well as other metabolites, which were not evaluated in this study, and other compounds with weaker resonances. The MRSI Voxel Picker (MVP) software suite (Seese et al 2011) was used for MRI/MRSI co-processing. The T1-weighted volume, and the gray-matter, white-matter, CSF, and thalamic binary masks were imported into MVP, as well as the MRSI raw-data file and LCModel output.…”

Investigation of Heschl's gyrus and planum temporale in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder: A proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy study

“…Longitudinal studies report progressive gray matter loss in the superior temporal gyrus and more precisely the Heschl's Gyrus and Planum Temporale with progression to psychosis and development of delusions (Vita et al, 2012). Moreover, left superior temporal cortices have been associated with symptom domains such as auditory hallucinations (Dierks et al, 1999; Jardri et al, 2011; Kuhn and Gallinat, 2012; Modinos et al, 2013; Shinn et al, 2013) and thought disorder (Seese et al, 2011; Shenton et al, 1992) in psychosis. These findings suggest the superior temporal gyrus as a highly relevant location for the neurobiology and development of psychosis (Rajarethinam et al, 2000; Seese et al, 2011; Shenton et al, 1992; Takahashi et al, 2006)-.…”

“…Moreover, left superior temporal cortices have been associated with symptom domains such as auditory hallucinations (Dierks et al, 1999; Jardri et al, 2011; Kuhn and Gallinat, 2012; Modinos et al, 2013; Shinn et al, 2013) and thought disorder (Seese et al, 2011; Shenton et al, 1992) in psychosis. These findings suggest the superior temporal gyrus as a highly relevant location for the neurobiology and development of psychosis (Rajarethinam et al, 2000; Seese et al, 2011; Shenton et al, 1992; Takahashi et al, 2006)-. On the other hand, two meta-analyses of volumetric studies of superior temporal cortices did not report any significant differences between patients with bipolar disorder and healthy participants (Arnone et al, 2009; Kempton et al, 2008).…”

“…Frontal, anterior cingulate and hippocampal regions are the most frequently studied brain regions and the findings were consistent across these brain regions. Only one study has investigated brain metabolites within the superior temporal gyrus (Seese et al, 2011) and reported a correlation between N-acetyl aspartate (NAA) concentrations and thought disorder in children with schizophrenia. However, to our knowledge, no single 1 H MRS study has investigated the superior temporal region and compared the findings in adult patients with schizophrenia and patients with bipolar disorder.…”

Nature of Glutamate Alterations in Schizophrenia

“…The sample sizes ranged from 5 to 84 for cases and 4 to 81 for healthy volunteers (eTable 1 in the Supplement). Two studies 73,74 reporting multivoxel data were excluded. Fourteen studies (References 18, 25, 26, 29, 31, 37, 49,(51)(52)(53) 56, 57, 62,75) examined participants at HR for psychosis.…”