Increased brain gyrification in the schizophrenia spectrum

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Psychiatry
• Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Background:

• Schizophrenia is associated with increased brain gyrification, indicating potential early neurodevelopmental alterations.
• It is unclear if schizotypal disorder, a related condition, shares similar gyrification patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate and compare brain gyrification in patients with schizotypal disorder, schizophrenia, and healthy controls.
• To determine if altered gyrification is a shared characteristic or a distinguishing feature between these groups.

Main Methods:

• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to acquire T1-weighted images from 46 schizotypal disorder patients, 101 schizophrenia patients, and 77 healthy controls.
• The local gyrification index (LGI) was calculated for the entire cortex using FreeSurfer software.
• Cortical LGI was statistically compared across the three study groups.

Main Results:

• Both schizophrenia and schizotypal disorder patients exhibited significantly higher LGI in regions including the bilateral prefrontal and left parietal cortices compared to controls.
• The extent of increased LGI was more widespread in schizophrenia patients, particularly in the right prefrontal and left occipital regions.
• No significant correlations were observed between LGI and clinical variables such as symptom severity or medication in either patient group.

Conclusions:

• Elevated frontoparietal LGI is a common finding in both schizotypal disorder and schizophrenia, potentially indicating a shared neurodevelopmental vulnerability.
• More extensive gyrification abnormalities in schizophrenia may be linked to the expression of psychosis.