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Published on: February 6, 2019
Disrupted prefrontal interhemispheric structural coupling in schizophrenia related to working memory performance.
Anne L Wheeler1, M Mallar Chakravarty2, Jason P Lerch3
1Kimel Family Translational Imaging Genetics Laboratory, Research Imaging Centre, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada;
Schizophrenia patients show reduced cortical thickness and impaired structural coupling in prefrontal circuits, impacting working memory. This highlights a potential vulnerability pathway for cognitive deficits in schizophrenia.
Area of Science:
- Neuroimaging
- Psychiatry
- Cognitive Neuroscience
Background:
- Schizophrenia is associated with significant cortical thickness reductions.
- Structural coupling alterations and their link to cognitive deficits in schizophrenia are underexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate structural coupling alterations in schizophrenia.
- To examine the relationship between disrupted brain circuits and cognitive impairments.
Main Methods:
- Acquired MRI scans from 54 schizophrenia patients and 68 controls.
- Compared vertex-wise cortical thickness and assessed brain-wide cortical thickness correlations.
- Explored links between circuit structure and cognitive task performance.
Main Results:
- Patients exhibited reduced cortical thickness, primarily in frontal and temporal regions.
- Significant differences in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) correlations were observed between groups.
- Poorer working memory performance correlated with stronger frontal interhemispheric thickness correlations.
Conclusions:
- Structural impairment in the left-right DLPFC circuit is present in schizophrenia, irrespective of illness stage or medication.
- Prefrontal interhemispheric circuit impairment may be a vulnerability pathway for working memory deficits.
- Findings may inform novel therapeutic strategies for improving working memory in schizophrenia.
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