Brain imaging of affective disorders and schizophrenia

We review recent findings in human brain imaging, for example, which brain areas are used during perception of colors, moving objects, human faces, facial expressions, sadness and happiness etc. One study used fluorine-18-labeled deoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) in patients with unipolar depression and bipolar depression, and found hypometabolism in the left anterolateral prefrontal cortex. Another study reported increased regional cerebral blood flow in the amygdala in familial pure depressive disease. Using 11C-glucose PET, we reported that the glutamic acid pool was reduced in cortical areas of the brain in patients with major depression. We also found that the thalamic and cingulate areas were hyperactive in drug-naive (never medicated) acute schizophrenics, while the associative frontal, parietal, temporal gyri were hypoactive in drug-naive chronic schizophrenics. Brain biochemical disturbances of schizophrenic patients involved glutamic acid, N-acetyl aspartic acid, phosphatidylcholine and sphingomyelin which are important chemical substances in the working brain. The areas of the thalamus and the cingulate which become hyperactive in acute schizophrenic patients are important brain areas for perception and communication. The association areas of the cortex which become disturbed in chronic schizophrenia are essential brain areas in human creativity (language, concepts, formation of cultures and societies) and exist only in human beings.