The autonomic orienting response and CT scan findings in schizophrenia

CT scan measures of prefrontal sulcal prominence, parieto-occipital sulcal prominence, ventricle-brain ratio (VBR), and third ventricle width (TVW) were examined in 24 schizophrenic patients who were grouped on the basis of their autonomic orienting response (OR) status. A two-component definition of the OR was used that required concordance across both electrodermal and finger pulse volume components for response status assignment. The nine OR responders had significantly greater TVW than the 15 OR nonresponders. Although OR responders had higher values also on the other CT scan measures, these differences were not significant. These findings are consistent with the possibility that OR responsiveness and nonresponsiveness are related to different pathological dimensions of schizophrenia.