Clinical correlates of MRI white matter abnormalities in schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric illness that can be accompanied by positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive dysfunctions in most cognitive domains. Neuroimaging studies have focused on understanding the relationship between schizophrenia and brain abnormalities. Most of these have focused on the well-documented gray matter abnormalities. However, emphasis has recently been placed on white matter abnormalities associated with the disorder. A number of studies have found reduced white matter volumes in schizophrenia and abnormalities in genes associated with white matter. The clinical significance of these abnormalities is just beginning to be understood. The advent of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has been particularly important in this regard, as it allows us to draw inferences regarding the organization of white matter in the brain. In this article, I will review recent work showing clinical correlates of neuroimaging-based white matter abnormalities in schizophrenia.