Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 20, 2026
Probing the Brain in Autism Using fMRI and Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Published on: September 12, 2011
Structural disconnectivity in schizophrenia: a diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging study
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, UK.
Background:
There is growing evidence that schizophrenia is a disorder of cortical connectivity. Specifically, frontotemporal and frontoparietal connections are thought to be functionally impaired. Diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI) is a technique that has the potential to demonstrate structural disconnectivity in schizophrenia.
Aims:
To investigate the structural integrity of frontotemporal and frontoparietal white matter tracts in schizophrenia.
Method:
Thirty patients with DSM-IV schizophrenia and thirty matched control subjects underwent DT-MRI and structural MRI. Fractional anisotropy - an index of the integrity of white matter tracts - was determined in the uncinate fasciculus, the anterior cingulum and the arcuate fasciculus and analysed using voxel-based morphometry.
Results:
There was reduced fractional anisotropy in the left uncinate fasciculus and left arcuate fasciculus in patients with schizophrenia compared with controls.
Conclusions:
The findings of reduced white matter tract integrity in the left uncinate fasciculus and left arcuate fasciculus suggest that there is frontotemporal and frontoparietal structural disconnectivity in schizophrenia.
