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Thalamic shape abnormalities in antipsychotic naïve schizophrenia
Vijay Danivas1, Sunil V Kalmady, Ganesan Venkatasubramanian
1Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, Karnataka, India ; Translational Psychiatry Laboratory, Cognitive Neurobiology Division, Neurobiology Research Centre, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine
|July 9, 2013
Summary
Schizophrenia patients show inward thalamic shape deformations, particularly in nuclei connected to frontal regions. These findings support the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia, highlighting abnormal brain development.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Radiology
Background:
- The neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia implicates abnormal neural pruning.
- Thalamic volume abnormalities are known, but shape differences in antipsychotic-naive schizophrenia require further study.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate thalamic shape differences in antipsychotic-naive schizophrenia patients compared to healthy controls.
- To correlate thalamic shape abnormalities with psychopathology scores.
Main Methods:
- Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from 60 antipsychotic-naive schizophrenia patients and 44 healthy volunteers were analyzed.
- Three-dimensional automated image analysis (FMRIB's Integrated Registration and Segmentation Tool - FIRST) was used to create deformable mesh models of the thalamus.
- Correlation between thalamic shape and psychopathology was assessed using F-statistics.
Main Results:
- Schizophrenia patients exhibited significant inward deformations in anterior, ventromedial, mediodorsal, and pulvinar thalamic nuclei.
- A direct correlation was observed between negative syndrome scores and deformation in the right mediodorsal and right pulvinar nuclei.
Conclusions:
- Inward thalamic deformations in antipsychotic-naive schizophrenia patients involve nuclei connected to frontal, superior temporal, and anterior cingulate regions.
- These findings support the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of schizophrenia by indicating abnormal development and connectivity.
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