Reduced neuron density, enlarged minicolumn spacing and altered ageing effects in fusiform cortex in schizophrenia

Rosa, Enrica Di; Crow, Timothy J.; Walker, Mary A.; Black, Georgia; Chance, Steven A.

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2008.04.007

Cited by 53 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 52 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Meanwhile, the absence of asymmetry in chimpanzees may relate to better performance than humans in tasks such as inverted face recognition that have ecological validity for chimpanzees (Matsuzawa, 2007). The human asymmetry is relatively confined to the mid-posterior fusiform region, as a previous study that included the more anterior fusiform (area 20) reported that minicolumn width in human subjects did not show a statistically significant asymmetry (Di Rosa et al, 2009). A further indication that this functional specialization is associated with minicolumn structure – face discrimination ability is reduced in old age (an effect described as “dedifferentiation”; Goh et al, 2010) and marked minicolumn alteration is also found in fusiform cortex in old age (Di Rosa et al, 2009).…”

Section: Evolutionary Comparison Of Auditory and Face-processing Asymmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…The human asymmetry is relatively confined to the mid-posterior fusiform region, as a previous study that included the more anterior fusiform (area 20) reported that minicolumn width in human subjects did not show a statistically significant asymmetry (Di Rosa et al, 2009). A further indication that this functional specialization is associated with minicolumn structure – face discrimination ability is reduced in old age (an effect described as “dedifferentiation”; Goh et al, 2010) and marked minicolumn alteration is also found in fusiform cortex in old age (Di Rosa et al, 2009). As with auditory language processing, there is also left-hemisphere dominance for written language and disordered reading is associated with damage to the left temporo-parietal area (the angular gyrus), first noted by the 19 th -century neurologist Dejerine.…”

Section: Evolutionary Comparison Of Auditory and Face-processing Asymmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Schizophrenia patients sometimes have difficulty in recognizing their own face (Kircher et al, 2003) and minicolumns have also been shown to be altered in the fusiform gyrus in patients (Di Rosa et al, 2009). In another neuropsychiatric condition, people with autism have a selective deficit in perceiving facial expressions categorically (Teunisse and de Gelder, 2001) which affects activation of the fusiform gyrus (Pierce et al, 2004).…”

Section: Schizophrenia and Autismmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The cortical microstructural basis of lateralized cognition: a review

Chance

2014

Front. Psychol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The presence of asymmetry in the human cerebral hemispheres is detectable at both the macroscopic and microscopic scales. The horizontal expansion of cortical surface during development (within individual brains), and across evolutionary time (between species), is largely due to the proliferation and spacing of the microscopic vertical columns of cells that form the cortex. In the asymmetric planum temporale (PT), minicolumn width asymmetry is associated with surface area asymmetry. Although the human minicolumn asymmetry is not large, it is estimated to account for a surface area asymmetry of approximately 9% of the region’s size. Critically, this asymmetry of minicolumns is absent in the equivalent areas of the brains of other apes. The left-hemisphere dominance for processing speech is thought to depend, partly, on a bias for higher resolution processing across widely spaced minicolumns with less overlapping dendritic fields, whereas dense minicolumn spacing in the right hemisphere is associated with more overlapping, lower resolution, holistic processing. This concept refines the simple notion that a larger brain area is associated with dominance for a function and offers an alternative explanation associated with “processing type.” This account is mechanistic in the sense that it offers a mechanism whereby asymmetrical components of structure are related to specific functional biases yielding testable predictions, rather than the generalization that “bigger is better” for any given function. Face processing provides a test case – it is the opposite of language, being dominant in the right hemisphere. Consistent with the bias for holistic, configural processing of faces, the minicolumns in the right-hemisphere fusiform gyrus are thinner than in the left hemisphere, which is associated with featural processing. Again, this asymmetry is not found in chimpanzees. The difference between hemispheres may also be seen in terms of processing speed, facilitated by asymmetric myelination of white matter tracts (Anderson et al., 1999 found that axons of the left posterior superior temporal lobe were more thickly myelinated). By cross-referencing the differences between the active fields of the two hemispheres, via tracts such as the corpus callosum, the relationship of local features to global features may be encoded. The emergent hierarchy of features within features is a recursive structure that may functionally contribute to generativity – the ability to perceive and express layers of structure and their relations to each other. The inference is that recursive generativity, an essential component of language, reflects an interaction between processing biases that may be traceable in the microstructure of the cerebral cortex. Minicolumn organization in the PT and the prefrontal cortex has been found to correlate with cognitive scores in humans. Altered minicolumn organization is also observed in neuropsychiatric disorders including autism and schizophrenia. Indeed, altered interhemispheric connections correlated with ...

show abstract

Section: Evolutionary Comparison Of Auditory and Face-processing Asymmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Evolutionary Comparison Of Auditory and Face-processing Asymmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Schizophrenia and Autismmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The cortical microstructural basis of lateralized cognition: a review

Chance

2014

Front. Psychol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Altered neuronal densities were reported in the prefrontal cortex (Akbarian et al, 1996;Anderson et al, 1996;Connor et al, 2009;Daviss and Lewis, 1995;Ikeda et al, 2004;Joshi et al, 2012;Morris et al, 2008;Rajkowska et al, 1998;Selemon et al, 1995Selemon et al, , 1998Selemon et al, , 2003Yang et al, 2011), auditory cortex (Dorph-Petersen et al, 2009), cingulate cortex (Benes, 1991(Benes, , 1993Brune et al, 2010;Connor et al, 2009), entorhinal cortex (Arnold et al, 1991;Falkai et al, 2000;Jakob and Beckmann, 1986;Kovalenko et al, 2003;Wang et al, 2011), fusiform cortex (Di Rosa et al, 2009), occipital cortex (Selemon et al, 1995), parietal cortex (Chance et al, 2005), visual cortex (Dorph-Petersen et al, 2007), thalamus (Young et al, 2000), hypothalamus (Bernstein et al, 1998), striatum (Kreczmanski et al, 2007), amygdala (Kreczmanski et al, 2007), and hippocampus (Konradi et al, 2011) in post-mortem brain tissue from schizophrenic patients. Interestingly, many of these reports show specific defects in GABAergic interneuron density or distribution (Benes et al, 1991;Chance et al, 2005;Daviss and Lewis, 1995;Di Rosa et al, 2009;Ikeda et al, 2004;Joshi et al, 2012;Konradi et al, 2011;Morris et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2011;Yang et al, 2011). While the majority of studies report decreased cell densiti...…”

Section: Anatomical and Histological Findings Suggest Neurodevelopmenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neurodevelopment, GABA System Dysfunction, and Schizophrenia

Schmidt

Mirnics

2014

Neuropsychopharmacol

191

130

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The origins of schizophrenia have eluded clinicians and researchers since Kraepelin and Bleuler began documenting their findings. However, large clinical research efforts in recent decades have identified numerous genetic and environmental risk factors for schizophrenia. The combined data strongly support the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia and underscore the importance of the common converging effects of diverse insults. In this review, we discuss the evidence that genetic and environmental risk factors that predispose to schizophrenia disrupt the development and normal functioning of the GABAergic system.

show abstract

“…Reduced volume of the fusiform gyrus (14% of tissue loss) is in line with the results of a neuropathologic study of patients with schizophrenia showing an 18% reduction of neuron attenuation in layers III and V of this region. 34 The fusiform gyrus plays a relevant role in face-processing integrating perception, memory, and emotion. 35 Reduced GM volume of this region may, therefore, be linked to a failure in facial identification and emotion and, thus, may lead to typical impairment of the empathic social interaction known to occur in these patients.…”

Section: Gm Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of Brain Structural Changes in First-Contact, Antipsychotic Drug-Naïve Patients with Schizophrenia

Filippi

Canu

Gasparotti

et al. 2013

AJNR Am J Neuroradiol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:Previous studies have suggested that structural changes do occur in the brain of patients with schizophrenia compared with healthy control participants. However, findings from such studies are inconclusive, probably because of the different methodologic approaches, the clinical heterogeneity of patient samples, and also the fact that patients enrolled were treated with antipsychotic drugs. The aim of this study was to investigate brain GM volumes and intrinsic structural WM changes in first-contact, antipsychotic drug-naïve patients with schizophrenia.

show abstract

Reduced neuron density, enlarged minicolumn spacing and altered ageing effects in fusiform cortex in schizophrenia

Cited by 53 publications

References 52 publications

The cortical microstructural basis of lateralized cognition: a review

The cortical microstructural basis of lateralized cognition: a review

Neurodevelopment, GABA System Dysfunction, and Schizophrenia

Patterns of Brain Structural Changes in First-Contact, Antipsychotic Drug-Naïve Patients with Schizophrenia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About