Structural MRI Differences between Patients with and without First Rank Symptoms: A Delusion?

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Radiology

Background:

• Specific psychotic symptom clusters may correlate with distinct biological abnormalities.
• First-rank symptoms (FRS) are linked to cognitive deficits, suggesting underlying neural network abnormalities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate structural brain volume differences in patients with and without FRS.
• To explore potential neural correlates of FRS in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.

Main Methods:

• Utilized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on three independent patient samples (total 348 patients) with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.
• Compared brain volumes (cortical and subcortical) between patients with FRS (FRS+) and without FRS (FRS-).

Main Results:

• Sample A: Significantly smaller nucleus accumbens volume in FRS+ patients compared to FRS- patients (p < 0.005).
• Sample B: Significantly smaller pars-opercularis volume in FRS+ patients compared to FRS- patients (p < 0.001).
• No other significant cortical or subcortical volume differences were consistently found across samples after multiple comparison correction.

Conclusions:

• Observed brain volume differences between FRS+ and FRS- patients are subtle and lack consistency across independent samples.
• Neural abnormalities associated with FRS might be below the detection threshold of current structural brain imaging techniques.