Superior temporal gyrus in schizophrenia: a volumetric magnetic resonance imaging study

The left superior temporal gyrus (STG) has been reported to be smaller in patients with schizophrenia. The volume of the STG has been found to correlate negatively with severity of hallucinations and thought disorder. In this study, we measured the STG volume of 20 normal controls and 20 patients with schizophrenia using 3 mm contiguous coronal T1 magnetic resonance images. We found that patients had a significantly smaller left anterior STG, and that the volume of this region negatively correlated with the severity of hallucinations. The left posterior STG was not significantly smaller in patients than in controls, but its volume negatively correlated with severity of thought disorder. We also found that the left anterior STG was smaller than the right STG in patients but not in controls. The STG has at least three histologically distinct areas, each with different connections to the rest of the brain. These data are consistent with the proposition that dysfunction of the primary auditory cortex in the anterior and middle STG and auditory association cortex in the posterior STG may play a role in the production of auditory perceptual abnormalities and poor organization of thought respectively.