Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Smaller frontal gray matter volume in postmortem schizophrenic brains.

Lynn D Selemon1, Joel E Kleinman, Mary M Herman

  • 1Department of Neurobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, PO Box 208001, New Haven, CT 06520-8001, USA. ldselemon@aol.com

The American Journal of Psychiatry
|November 27, 2002
PubMed
Summary

Schizophrenia is linked to significantly smaller frontal gray matter volume in postmortem brains. This finding suggests more severe frontal lobe pathology may underlie prefrontal dysfunction in schizophrenia.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

BDNF-DT and BDNF-AS-DT: novel genes in the BDNF locus.

Molecular psychiatry·2026
Same author

Spatiomolecular mapping reveals anatomical organization of heterogeneous cell types in the human nucleus accumbens.

Neuron·2026
Same author

Co-expression-based models improve eQTL predictions for transcriptome-wide association studies and highlight new schizophrenia-associated genes.

Nature genetics·2026
Same author

Convergent molecular signatures across eating disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder in the human brain.

Cell reports·2026
Same author

Spatio-molecular gene expression reflects dorsal anterior cingulate cortex structure and function in the human brain.

Cell reports·2026
Same author

Cortical subpial aging-related tau astrogliopathy in older adult men who participated in youth amateur American-style football.

Journal of neuropathology and experimental neurology·2026

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Psychiatry
  • Pathology

Background:

  • Schizophrenia is associated with prefrontal cortex abnormalities.
  • Previous studies have yielded inconsistent findings regarding frontal lobe volume in schizophrenia.
  • Challenges in defining frontal lobe boundaries may explain variability in MRI studies.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To precisely measure frontal lobe gray and white matter volumes in postmortem brains of schizophrenic and control subjects.
  • To investigate potential volumetric deficits in the frontal lobe using stereologic methods.
  • To clarify the extent of frontal lobe pathology in schizophrenia.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of formalin-fixed left hemispheres from 14 schizophrenic and 19 normal subjects.
  • Application of stereologic methods, specifically the Cavalieri method, for volume estimation.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Precise definition of the posterior frontal lobe border using the Talairach and Tournoux atlas.

    • Main Results:

    • A statistically significant 12% smaller frontal gray matter volume was observed in schizophrenic subjects compared to controls.
    • Differences in total gray matter, total white matter, and frontal white matter volumes did not reach statistical significance.
    • Frontal white matter volume was 6%-8% smaller in schizophrenic subjects, but this was not statistically significant.

    Conclusions:

    • The reduced frontal gray matter volume in schizophrenia suggests potentially more severe pathology in the frontal lobe compared to other brain regions.
    • This finding supports the hypothesis that frontal lobe pathology contributes significantly to the prefrontal dysfunction characteristic of schizophrenia.