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Cortical intercorrelations of temporal area volumes in schizophrenia
Serge A Mitelman1, Lina Shihabuddin, Adam M Brickman
1Department of Psychiatry, Neuroscience-PET Laboratory, Box 1505, Mount Sinai Hospital, One Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, NY 10029, USA. serge.mitelman@mssm.edu
Schizophrenia Research
|June 14, 2005
Summary
Schizophrenia alters brain connectivity, strengthening frontotemporal links and weakening temporal lobe connections. These altered patterns may explain cognitive deficits and are linked to poor outcomes in patients.
Area of Science:
- Neuroimaging
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
Background:
- Abnormal temporal lobe connectivity is linked to cognitive deficits in schizophrenia.
- Understanding temporal and cortical region relationships is crucial for schizophrenia research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the relationship between temporal and other cortical regions in schizophrenia.
- To compare gray and white matter volume intercorrelations in patients and controls.
Main Methods:
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans of 46 normal subjects and 106 schizophrenia patients (52 good-outcome, 54 poor-outcome).
- Correlational patterns of gray and white matter volumes for each Brodmann's area were analyzed.
- Patterns were examined in relation to schizophrenia outcome subtypes.
Main Results:
- Schizophrenia patients showed stronger positive and weaker negative frontotemporal intercorrelations than controls.
- Right temporal pole to other temporal region correlations were weaker in schizophrenia patients.
- Poor-outcome patients exhibited stronger left-hemisphere gray matter correlations between medial temporal vs. visual and auditory vs. prefrontal cortices.
Conclusions:
- Major differences in schizophrenia include strengthened temporal-extratemporal associations and weakened intra-temporal lobe correlations.
- These connectivity alterations may underlie object recognition deficits.
- Findings suggest implications for spatial and semantic processing deficits associated with poor schizophrenia outcomes.